GAZA BEACH FRONT DEVELOPER

EXPOSED
Fogbow, a US firm with military links, eyes maritime plan for Gaza aid

A private US firm run by former military and ex-CIA members is pushing plans to build a movable jetty off Gaza’s coast so more lifesaving goods can get into the besieged Palestinian enclave. But UN officials, aid workers and several European government officials have expressed doubts about the project and voiced scepticism over the group’s origins and motives.


Issued on: 12/07/2024 - 

 France 24

PICTURE POSTCARD

The Gaza coastline near Nuseirat Palestinian refugee camp, with ships in the distance. 

LONG READ

By: Jessica LE MASURIERFollow|Dulcie Leimbach

The bid to get humanitarian assistance to Gaza via a sea route has hit troubled waters over the past few months, but it has not stopped a US company run by former military and CIA officials from pushing its controversial plan to secure maritime access to deliver aid to the besieged Palestinian enclave.

At a press conference on Thursday, US President Joe Biden said he was "disappointed" with the problem-plagued effort to deliver aid to Gaza via a temporary pier.

The $230-million US military pier has repeatedly been detached from the shore because of weather conditions since its initial installation in mid-May.

Biden’s comments came hours after the Pentagon announced that the US military was abandoning efforts to reinstall the pier, which was detached last month due to anticipated high seas.

Despite the repeated problems with the pier, Fogbow, a US private firm, is moving forward with its plan, which it calls Blue Beach, to deliver aid to Gaza via a maritime route.

Fogbow’s backstory is replete with deep military, intelligence and financial interests in a region wracked by the nine-month Gaza war whose death toll keeps rising.

Mick Mulroy, a Fogbow company official, recently told FRANCE 24 and PassBlue that the firm is working with USAID, the UN World Food Programme, the US military and a Fogbow-linked charity to pursue the Blue Beach project despite the failure of the US pier.

Fogbow shipped its first pallets of aid, with the help of the US military, on June 27, according to Mulroy. Some 1,100 tons of flour worth “nearly $1 million” – bought by Fogbow from a Cypriot mill – were shipped from the Larnaca port in Cyprus to Gaza.

Fogbow is not only looking to run aid operations into Gaza but also to play a role in its reconstruction, according to numerous UN and US government sources. But inconsistencies in the firm’s messaging and stated goals have left some of these experts questioning the organisation’s agenda.

PassBlue and FRANCE 24 spoke with two of Fogbow’s principals, Mulroy and Chris Hyslop, on a Zoom call in late June and at least 30 people in the US, Cypriot and other European governments, as well as the UN and other NGOs, to shed light on Fogbow’s plans for Gaza.

A mysterious early-morning call

The call set off her alarm bells. It was 8am and Julia*, a human rights specialist, whose reputed NGO has an office near UN headquarters in New York, had just stepped out of the shower when the phone rang. “I’d like to speak to your events manager,” the caller barked.

“Sorry, we don’t have an events organiser. How may I help you?” she asked. The caller said she was from Fogbow, a group Julia had never heard of, which the woman said was exploring alternative ways of getting humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“I explained to the woman on the phone that we are also interested in getting aid into Gaza and suggested we might be able to collaborate,” said Julia.

“There was no, ‘Oh well, let’s all work together’ – which tends to be what the humanitarian community does,” Julia said.

“No,” the Fogbow woman said unequivocally to suggestions of collaborating. “'We are a private company.' What she wanted was to host an event with us in our space in New York.”

After Julia got off the phone, she Googled “Fogbow” and saw that it is mostly made up of former US military and intelligence people. “I thought: ‘Why are they interested in working with us? What are they up to?’”

That’s the same question that a UN front-line aid worker asked himself when a former member of the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs turned up in his office in early February on a charm offensive. Chris Hyslop, a Fogbow official, came armed with a PowerPoint presentation laying out his company’s Blue Beach proposal for a movable pier. He was accompanied by Eric Oehlerich, a former US Navy Seal.
A slide showing Fogbow's 'Blue Beach Plan' presentation. © France 24

The humanitarian aid, Hyslop said, would be bought by Fogbow and shipped through the Amalthea maritime route from the Larnaca port in Cyprus to Gaza that is being promoted by the Cypriot government. The presentation obtained exclusively by FRANCE 24 and PassBlue detailed plans for a “quay” on Gaza’s coastline.

A slide showing Fogbow's 'aid delivery zone'. © France 24

The presentation even addressed plans for “crowd control management” at the “depot area”.

There was good reason to consider crowds: More than 100 people were killed in a stampede in Gaza City in February as people desperately tried to grab some sacks of flour from a food convoy and Israeli forces fired on them.

Fogbow presentation showing Gaza Industrial Estate. © France 24

“They (Hyslop and Oehlerich) claimed they’d met at a kind of county fair, somewhere in the middle of nowhere in America,” the worker said in an interview with PassBlue and FRANCE24.

But for those involved in aid distribution, the plan seemed almost comically out of touch with the realities on the ground in Gaza, where Israel’s relentless bombing in retaliation for the Hamas October 7 massacre has complicated if not halted deliveries as famine looms.

“We sniggered because none of it made any sense,” the UN aid worker continued. “It was so removed from the political reality. It sounded like a crackpot scheme, to be honest.”

“There was something fishy from the start.”

The Fogbow team told the UN worker they had financial backing from “wealthy individuals” and the government of the United Arab Emirates. They said they had also secured the support of the Israel Defence Forces, or IDF, and a tentative green light from COGAT – Israel’s aid coordination cell in the Palestinian territories – to move ahead with the plan.

Who runs Fogbow?

The Fogbow military veterans who run the show include Sam Mundy and Mulroy. The latter is a former naval specialist with the CIA who served in the Trump administration as deputy assistant secretary of defence for the Mideast.

Mulroy was also a director of the Yemen Steering Initiative, “a $50 billion program designed to jumpstart the process to prevent Yemen from becoming a failed state”, according to his LinkedIn page. The initiative was devised, four years ago, by the RAND corporation, a think-tank closely tied to the US defence-intelligence apparatus.

RAND also did a study on the Gaza Arc in 2005, which included plans for a floating maritime dock.

Mundy served as a commander of the Marine Corps Forces Central Command (MARCENT), which is responsible for Marines deployed in the Mideast and participated in a 2022 JINSA Program in Israel focused on underscoring the importance of the US-Israel defence relationship to US national security.

Hyslop brought the UN connections to Fogbow. His LinkedIn bio says he was involved with UN “security” when he worked for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Mulroy told Passblue and FRANCE 24 that Fogbow is owned by three American businessmen: Steven Fox, Robb Fipp and Brook Jerue. Fogbow's website lists the three men as its founders. Fox is also the founder of the corporate intelligence firm Veracity Worldwide, which is based in New York City, and where Jerue is a managing director. Fipp, formerly with Veracity, is in venture capital.

Screen grab from Fogbow's website. © France 24

Fox formerly worked for the State Department, specialising in Israeli and Palestinian affairs, among other regions, according to Fogbow’s website. Yet according to Eamon Javers’s “Broker, Trader, Lawyer, Spy,” a 2011 book about the secret world of corporate espionage, Fox also formerly worked for the CIA.

Mulroy said that Fox, Fipp and Jerue approached him and Hyslop in 2022 to put together an “international humanitarian assistance and disaster relief force to deliver aid to crisis-hit countries, devastated by natural disasters or war”.

That was the initial plan, until “all of a sudden Gaza started”.

“They shifted and said, ‘Can you guys look at what you could do right now in Gaza?’”

Details about Fogbow’s history and operations are scarce on its website, even as it promotes its work without citing examples of “executing complex logistical challenges delivering aid”.

Screen grab from Fogbow's website. © France 24

The site also says that Fogbow “supports the UN’s Connecting Business Initiative”. The UN initiative, however, told FRANCE 24 and PassBlue it had no dealings with Fogbow and had asked repeatedly for the claim to be removed from the organisation's website, without success.

Fogbow describes itself as a provider of humanitarian aid logistics. “We don't pretend to be a humanitarian organisation,” Hyslop said in the Zoom call with him and Mulroy, saying the firm operates merely as a “transporter”.

Hyslop told FRANCE 24 and PassBlue that funding for Fogbow’s movable pier plan would come from the Maritime Humanitarian Aid Foundation (MHAF), a Geneva- and US-based charity run by a former US diplomat, Cameron Hume, who is also an adviser for Veracity.

MHAF has secured funding commitments “in excess” of $50 million “as seed funding from donor governments”, Mulroy said.

“Based on Fogbow’s work under contract with the foundation, there is an expectation of securing significant additional funding from GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and other donors.”

Other top advisers at Veracity include Richard Dearlove, who was head of the British intelligence agency known as MI6 (a role known informally as "C”) from 1999 to 2004, including during the US/British invasion of Iraq.

Anatomy of a pier

Mulroy and Hyslop said that they went to the White House twice, in early 2024, to discuss their Blue Beach project. The meetings were set up by Curtis Ried, Chief of Staff of the US National Security Council and Assistant to Brett McGurk, Senior Advisor to the US President for Middle East Affairs. In May, Ried was promoted as the US representative to the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe), with the rank of ambassador. They said they also met with Terry Wolff, a retired three-star Army general.

President Joe Biden announced in his State of the Union address on March 7 that he was directing the US military to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean near Gaza to bring more food and other essentials into the Palestinian enclave.

The timing was urgent: Three senior UN officials warned the UN Security Council on February 27 of “imminent famine in the Gaza Strip”, pushing for “immediate action to avert humanitarian disaster in a territory where many Council members alleged the use of hunger as a weapon of war”.

But aid groups and others have insisted that the overland routes into Gaza blockaded by Israel’s military operation remain the best way to get aid into the enclave.

US Army Major Harrison Mann described the US jetty as a PR stunt, saying: “The pier and the airdrops look like they were intended to satisfy Americans who were concerned about the suffering of Palestinians, but I’m not sure what segment of the population both deeply cares about the welfare of Palestinians but is not engaged enough to see the failure of both the pier and the airdrop projects,” he told FRANCE 24 and PassBlue.

Major Mann was the first US military and intelligence officer to resign publicly over the Biden administration’s support of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, Fogbow was negotiating a role in the maritime route from Cyprus to Gaza. Fogbow tried to clinch contracts with USAID and the State Department, but they were unsuccessful – partly because the firm had no history of delivering aid in the region, according to government sources who did not want to speak on the record.

Stacy Gilbert, who spent over two decades working for the State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, said that maritime aid plans would do little to alleviate the suffering in Gaza.

“For people who know anything about humanitarian assistance, the US pier doesn't make any sense because the whole reason we are doing it is because our ally Israel is blocking humanitarian assistance,” she said, adding that the money used to build the pier could have been better spent.

Gilbert resigned from the Biden administration after a controversial report to which she contributed (the NSM-20 report released May 10) concluded that Israel was not obstructing humanitarian aid to Gaza despite credible evidence to the contrary.

A USAID branch called the Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance spearheads global aid in crisis situations, with a US government source saying, “When there’s an international disaster [it] is the lead – period.”

The source said that Fogbow’s lack of respect for the lead agency (USAID) and their lack of a track record reek of “profiteering”.

“When DoD is invited to support a response, then they can use the resources they have (such as ships) to speed things up. When it comes to working with a private firm like Fogbow it has to be contracted out by the DoD," the US government source told FRANCE 24 and PassBlue. "Typically, DoD lawyers would say no, unless it was for something specific to their needs like vessel recovery.”

Fogbow said it did make some of its leased tugboats available to support the US pier operation.

Avoiding pitfalls

In an email to PassBlue, Ann Wright, a member of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition, a nongovernmental organisation that has been trying to sail aid into Gaza, was dubious about the role Fogbow is striving to play in the region. Wright served in the US Army and Reserves for 29 years as well as 16 years as a diplomat. She resigned in 2003 in opposition to the US war in Iraq.

“The fact that most of the Fogbow staff are retired US military and CIA officials definitely has a ‘smell to it’ of a US covert operation,” Wright wrote in her email.

Gilbert noted: “Humanitarian organizations use former military [experts] in various roles. I think what gives us pause is when the Department of Defence is contracting for work in humanitarian assistance that they (the military) should not be doing.”

In the interview with FRANCE 24 and PassBlue in late June, Hyslop took umbrage with assumptions about Fogbow’s motives simply because of its principals’ extensive CIA and military backgrounds.

“I've never heard any humanitarian ask Maersk or APL (logistics) or major global shippers if they have former military people on their staff,” Hyslop said on the Zoom call. “Of course they do. All their logisticians primarily come from world militaries and no questions are asked. But they're asked of us. And I understand it.”

“But I also ask for some understanding from the perspective of the humanitarians, and to give our boys a chance to explain that these are not active military people,” he added. “They've properly and respectfully served their countries and now they're bringing these skills now in support of the humanitarian community, not to take over in any way.”

Mulroy told PassBlue and FRANCE 24 that the firm plans to build the movable pier as outlined in the Blue Beach proposal: a $20 million structure with a crane that will be better adapted to rough seas than the US pier has been.

Fogbow’s offshore project would involve their ocean-going barges being pushed by tugs from the Larnaca port, carrying up to 150 truck-equivalent units.

The landing zone would bring an “additive route” to overland roads and be “impervious to weather conditions and wave heights”, Mulroy said, describing how the project would work. “It's essentially on the beach and it has sea breaks and all that stuff.”

There would be a “short quay wall” and a “dredged slot” that the barges can be pulled onto the beach. Then “the containers are just offloaded with no dock or causeway”, Mulroy said.

Fogbow emphasised that their design would avoid the technical problems encountered by the US military pier.

A Palestinian billionaire, Bashar al Masri, is in discussions about partnering with Fogbow for storage and distribution of aid, according to UN sources. Al Masri previously financed the reconstruction of the Gaza Industrial Estate after it was destroyed in Israel’s 11-day offensive on Gaza in 2021. Masri built the enclave’s first luxury hotel, called Blue Beach, which was near the spot where the US pier was constructed.

But a Gazan photographer, Mohammed Hajjar, who is based in the enclave, said that Al Masri is regarded with suspicion by the local population, “Most Gazans don’t know him. We don’t know his politics, his goals, what his political programme is. My opinion [is] he is not in a position to be part of any solutions in post-war Gaza.”

“He came to Gaza once and seemed interested in trade. All of his solutions were for-profit options.”

Salman Al-Zurai’i, a Palestinian researcher and policy analyst based in Gaza, said to FRANCE 24 and PassBlue about Al Masri: “I think that Al Masri – and generally the private sector – are going to play a large role in the day after the war in Gaza.”

“The involvement of the Palestinian private sector, local stakeholders and Gazan clans in running post-war Gaza implies that neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas will play a role, resulting in a political vacuum in Gaza,” he added.

“The Israelis want to prevent Palestinian political actors from participating in post-war Gaza; this is a major Israeli approach that has been ongoing for 17 years and led to cementing the political separation of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.”

The idea for a sea entry point into Gaza was floated by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in October 2023, according to The Jerusalem Post. It was not the first time Israel had proposed a floating island off the coast of Gaza purportedly to facilitate aid delivery.

Israeli media reported in March on Netanyahu’s post-war vision for the Gaza strip, known as “Gaza 2035”. The document, later published online by Netanyahu’s office (on May 3), promotes the idea that Gaza “can become a significant industrial production centre for the shores of the Mediterranean with … access to… energy and raw materials from the Gulf while leveraging Israeli technology”.

Image from Israeli PM Netanyahu's Gaza 2035 plan. © France 24

The plan would keep Gaza under Israeli control – and allow it to exploit the enclave’s offshore energy reserves, estimated at 1.1 trillion cubic feet of natural gas – while an Arab Coalition (including the UAE and Saudi Arabia) would create a body called the Gaza Rehabilitation Authority to oversee the reconstruction efforts. The plan does not appear to give Palestinians any operative role.

UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan denounced Netanyahu’s plans on X shortly after their release, making it clear that the Israeli PM had not consulted Abu Dhabi.

“The UAE stresses that the Israeli Prime Minister does not have the legal capacity to take this step, and the state refuses to be drawn into any plan aimed at providing cover for Israeli presence in the Gaza Strip,” the post read.
Fogbow eyes postwar reconstruction

Humanitarians expressed concern about the prospect of Fogbow playing a role in Gaza’s rebuilding once the war ends.

Jamie McGoldrick met with Fogbow three times earlier this year when he was the UN’s humanitarian aid coordinator for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, along with David Satterfield, then the US special envoy for the Middle East. McGoldrick said the firm was “not very transparent” about their intentions, including sources of funding – as Fogbow’s name, which means ghost rainbow, might suggest.

During a first meeting in February with McGoldrick and Satterfield, Fogbow’s representatives pitched a project not directly related to humanitarian assistance: a maritime corridor to be used for the reconstruction of Gaza. They said that the corridor could help with aid delivery if needed, but that was not its original purpose.

“What they told us about was this idea of having a supply route for reconstruction into Gaza because they saw an opportunity there – initially they were in conversations with Qatar then shifted to UAE for support,” McGoldrick said.

“They needed something like $300 million to set the whole thing up,” he added. “And they were looking for suitors, that was one of the reasons why I think they were in the room with Satterfield and others – to try and convince them to contribute to this or to be part of it.”

McGoldrick said that Fogbow’s operations in the region may be a way for the US to get into the Gaza reconstruction market.

A representative from the team of Sigrid Kaag, the US-backed senior UN humanitarian aid and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, was also in one of the meetings with Fogbow. Her team has not responded to our questions sent by email.

McGoldrick said that conversations about the future of Gaza are now under way: Will it go from “Mogadishu on the Med to Singapore on the Med or another Dubai?", he asked. UN officials calculate that Gaza’s postwar reconstruction could cost $30 to $40 billion, but no one is saying where the money will come from.

“I worked in many places” – including in Yemen – “where I came across these private firms,” McGoldrick added, referring to Fogbow.

“And, you know, they're not there for the human dimension of things, they’re there for profit,” he said. “American Navy SEALS, nice, shiny, connected politically and they have financial muscle behind them. You've always got to be suspicious of it.”

A model for post-war Gaza similar to the post-US invasion reconstruction operation in Iraq has been floated, McGoldrick noted. The US government official Paul Bremer ran the Coalition Provisional Authority after the 2003 US invasion and was unofficially governor of Baghdad. Both former British Prime Minister and Mideast Quartet negotiator Tony Blair – who has an office in Tel Aviv – and Kaag, who is also a former Dutch politician, have been name-dropped as possible main players in the post-reconstruction effort.

By using the Cyprus maritime corridor from Larnaca to the Gaza coast, prospectors could sideline “the Egyptians in Port Said.” Such a project, McGoldrick added, would create a channel “that’s controlled more by the Emirates and other Gulf countries who want to get a piece of Gaza”.

“The project could cut Palestinians out of the picture,” noted McGoldrick, as it “likely increases the separation of Gaza from the West Bank”.

“I think it's dangerous … because you want to create a settled environment there if you're going to have a prospect for peace for Gaza,” he said. “It's got to be Gaza for Gazans.”

*Name has been changed

BEACHFRONT PROPERTY CALL GAZA 666

Amid war and large-scale displacement in Gaza, Israeli settlers plan their return

More than 80% of Palestinians in Gaza have been displaced. The fear they may never be allowed back to their homes is bolstered by a growing movement in Israel to resettle in the Gaza Strip.

The World
December 26, 2023 · 

By Rebecca Collard






An ad from an Israeli real estate company, advertising a sea-front home in Gaza, transposed on the rubble of Palestinian homes, posted on Dec. 13, 2023. The post and the Instagram account have since been deleted after receiving elevated criticism on social media.
Screenshot from Instagram

 This month, as the Israeli Air Force continued to bombard the Gaza Strip, an Israeli real estate company posted images of Israeli settlements transposed on top of the rubble of Palestinian homes in Gaza.

“Wake up, a beach house is not a dream,” reads the ad, which includes a map of the future Israeli settlements in Gaza. “Now at pre-sale pieces.”

The company advertising beach-front homes for Israelis in the Gaza Strip also has settlements in the West Bank. And, while there has been no Israeli government approval of any new settlements in Gaza, the ad is part of a growing movement among Israeli settlers to return to Gaza, heightening fears that Palestinians displaced by the fighting may not be allowed to return to their homes.

Israeli Knesset member Limor Son Har Melech posted a video of herself in a boat with other settlers off the coast of Gaza earlier this month, as the war raged inside.

“First of all, it’s all very exciting,” said Son Har Melecha, a member of Israel’s far-right Jewish Power party. She goes on to call the return of Israeli settlements to Gaza a true picture of victory.

“Settlement in every part of the Gaza Strip … A large, extensive settlement without fear, without hesitation, without humiliation. This land is the land that the creator of the world gave to us.”

Returning Jewish settlements to Gaza is much more than messianic rhetoric.

A timeline line of Jewish presence in Gaza on the wall of the Gush Katif Museum

The boat trip wrapped up a day-long conference that included plans and logistics for building Israeli settlements in Gaza. In a WhatsApp group for would-be settlers, there is an online registration form asking applicants about their family size and current residence.

A leaked Israeli government document from October proposed relocating Gaza’s population to Egypt, and it’s something that has been alluded to by Israeli politicians.

“Oct. 7 definitely provided a lot more emboldening and legitimacy for those on the right who have been talking about expanding settlements,” said Mairav Zonszein, who is with the International Crisis Group. “Basically, one Jewish supremacist state between the river and the sea.”

Israel occupied Gaza and the West Bank in the 1967 war, and soon after, Israelis began settling there, even though it’s illegal under international law to establish settlements in an occupied territory. By 2005, when Israel withdrew from Gaza in what it called its unilateral disengagement, there were around 9,000 Israeli settlers in more than 20 settlements in Gaza. The numbers were much smaller than those in the West Bank, but as the Second Intifada raged, it took more soldiers and resources to protect those settlers.

The Gush Katif Museum in Jerusalem is named after the biggest of those settlement blocks. Gush Katif, which translates to the ‘Harvest Bloc,’ was built in the southwest of the Strip between, Rafah and Khan Yunis.

Here, the emboldening Zonszein talks about can be seen in piles of bright orange shirts stacked on tables and chairs, reading: “Going home. Going back to Gush Katif.”

 

A pile of ‘Return to Gush Katif’ T-shirts for sale at the Gush Katif Museum.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

The movement to return Israeli settlements in Gaza is not new.

Since Israel’s 2005 disengagement, settlers have kept the flame of reoccupation and resettlement alive, but motivation, planning and general Israeli support for that have risen sharply. Avner Franklin, a guide and group co-ordinator at the Gush Katif Museums, said they are selling a hundred times more shirts than before.

Until recently, returning Israeli settlements to Gaza seemed like a pipe dream of Israel’s religious right movement, but according to a poll by Israel’s Channel 12 last month, more Israelis supported the re-occupation and return of settlements in Gaza than opposed it.

Photos in the Gush Katif Museum show Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

Mani is visiting the museum to buy return-to-Gush-Katif shirts for her six children. She’s originally from Washington, DC. She did not want to give her last name because she said she is related to people who are in the US government. She said Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, which left around 1,200 Israelis dead and hundreds more as hostages in Gaza, is proof Israel needs those settlements to keep Israelis safe.

“Sending Jews back into Gaza to live there will strategically help us both as a state and as a Jewish people to secure our future in Israel for hundreds and thousands of years to come,” she said. Americans need to understand that Israel is fighting the war in Gaza not just on behalf of Israel but the US and the entire world, Mani added.

“This is a war against evil,” she said.

But the US has said they do not want to see Israel reoccupy Gaza in any long-term way, and in recent days — as the death toll in Gaza has soared to over 20,000 — has urged Israel to use more resistance and avoid civilian deaths. But so far, Washington has not stopped arms transfers to Israel or been willing to use any of its other real levers to rein in the Israeli military offensive.

A six-foot tall menorah in the Gush Katif Museum. In December, Israeli soldiers brought it to Gaza and lit it for Hanukkah.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

“Settlements do not bring security. Settlements are one of the main obstacles in this conflict to any kind of resolution,” said Zonszein.

One room of the museum is dedicated to Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza, with videos on a loop of Israeli soldiers forcibly removing Jewish settlers. Then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who had pushed for Israel to build settlements in occupied territories after the 1967 war, was also the one who pushed for the Gaza disengagement. His finance minister at the time, current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voted in favor of the plan at first but then resigned in protest, laying the groundwork for his return to the prime minister's office five years later.

A room in the Gush Katif Museum showing images of Israel’s 2005 withdrawal from Gaza.
Credit: Rebecca Collard/The World

Zonszein said that for now, it is not Israeli government policy to resettle in Gaza, but she said, as the war goes on, if Israel develops a military presence in northern Gaza, settlers could make attempts to set up settlements.

“I don't see that happening right now…,” Zonszein said, “But it could happen in a more kind of tacit way. I wouldn't rule it out. Let's put it that way.”

Related: Stateless Palestinians in Jordan struggle to make a future

Special Report-Destruction, lawlessness and red tape hobble aid as Gazans go hungry

John Davison, Michelle Nichols, Emma Farge, Emily Rose and Farah Saafan

REUTERS
Mon, March 25, 2024 









CAIRO (Reuters) - In mid-March, a line of trucks stretched for 3 kilometers along a desert road near a crossing point from Israel into the Gaza Strip. On the same day, another line of trucks, some 1.5 kilometers long, sometimes two or three across, was backed up near a crossing from Egypt into Gaza.

The trucks were filled with aid, much of it food, for the more than 2 million Palestinians in the war-ravaged enclave. About 50 kilometers from Gaza, more aid trucks – some 2,400 in total – were sitting idle this month in the Egyptian city of Al Arish, according to an Egyptian Red Crescent official.

These motionless food-filled trucks, the main lifeline for Gazans, are at the heart of the escalating humanitarian crisis gripping the enclave. More than five months into Israel’s war with Hamas, a report by a global authority on food security has warned that famine is imminent in parts of Gaza, as more than three-quarters of the population have been forced from their homes and swathes of the territory are in ruins.

Galvanized by reports and images of starving children, the international community, led by the United States, has been pressuring Israel to facilitate the transfer of more aid into Gaza. Washington has airdropped food into the Mediterranean enclave and recently announced it would build a pier off the Gaza coast to help ferry in more aid.

U.N. officials have accused Israel of blocking humanitarian supplies to Gaza. The European Union’s foreign policy chief alleged Israel was using starvation as a “weapon of war.” And aid agency officials say Israeli red tape is slowing the flow of trucks carrying food supplies.

Israeli officials reject these accusations and say they have increased aid access to Gaza. Israel isn’t responsible for delays in aid getting into Gaza, they say, and the delivery of aid once inside the territory is the responsibility of the U.N. and humanitarian agencies. Israel has also accused Hamas of stealing aid.

Reuters interviewed more than two dozen people, including humanitarian workers, Israeli military officials and truck drivers, in tracing the tortuous route that aid takes into Gaza in an effort to identify the chokepoints and reasons for delays of supplies. Reuters also reviewed U.N. and Israeli military statistics on aid shipments, as well as satellite images of the border crossing areas, which revealed the long lines of trucks.

Before the aid shipments enter Gaza, they undergo a series of Israeli checks, and a shipment approved at one stage of the process can later be rejected, according to 18 aid workers and U.N. officials involved in the aid effort. At one crossing from Israel into Gaza, goods are twice loaded off trucks and then reloaded onto other trucks that then carry the aid to warehouses in Gaza. The aid delivery process can also be complicated by competing international demands, with some countries wanting their contributions to be prioritized.

Aid that does make it into Gaza can be ransacked by desperate civilians, sometimes fall prey to armed gangs, or get held up by Israeli army checkpoints. Half the warehouses storing aid in Gaza are no longer operational after having been hit in the fighting.

“It’s upsetting watching these aid trucks go nowhere and vast humanitarian supplies sit in warehouses when you think about what’s happening, right now, to the people who need them,” said Paolo Pezzati, an Oxfam worker who recently visited the queue of aid trucks near the Egypt-Gaza border.

Before the war began, an average of 200 trucks carrying aid entered Gaza each day, according to U.N. figures. A further 300 trucks laden with commercial imports, including food, agricultural supplies and industrial materials, also entered each day via Israel. Since the start of the war, an average of around 100 trucks have entered Gaza daily, according to a review of U.N. and Israeli military statistics on aid shipments.

While the trucks struggle to get into Gaza, the need for aid has risen dramatically, both because of the vast number of displaced people and the devastation of key infrastructure in Israel’s assault. This includes the destruction of bakeries, markets, and farmland whose crops met some of Gaza’s food needs.

“Previous wars weren’t like this,” said Alaa al-Atar, a municipal official, referring to conflicts in Gaza. “There wasn’t the destruction of all sources of subsistence – homes, farmland, infrastructure. There’s nothing left to survive on, just aid,” said Atar, who was displaced from the north to the south of Gaza early in the war.

To meet its minimum needs, aid agencies and U.N. officials say Gaza currently requires 500 to 600 trucks a day, including humanitarian aid and the commercial supplies that were coming in before the war. That’s about four times the number of trucks getting in now.

In March there has been an uptick, with an average of 150 trucks entering Gaza each day.

Some deliveries are being made by international air drops and via sea, but they aren't making up for shortfalls on the land routes. In the first three weeks of March, the equivalent of some 50 truckloads of aid was airdropped and brought in by sea, a Reuters tally based on Israeli military statistics showed.

The recent food security report, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), found that a lack of aid means almost all households in Gaza are skipping meals every day and adults are cutting back on meals so their children can eat. The situation is particularly dire in northern Gaza, it said, where in nearly two-thirds of households, “people went entire days and nights without eating at least 10 times in the last 30 days.”

The war was triggered by a Hamas-led attack on communities in southern Israel on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people and resulted in more than 250 being taken hostage, according to Israel. Since then, Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 31,000 people, according to Gaza health authorities.

A senior Hamas official said Israel is responsible for the inadequate aid flows. The “biggest threat” to the distribution of aid is Israel’s ongoing attacks in Gaza, Hamas official Bassem Naim told Reuters. “The biggest obstacle to getting the aid to the people who need it is the continued gunfire and the continued targeting of aid and those who are handling it,” he said.

WAITING IN THE DESERT

Before some of the aid begins its journey to Gaza, it is flown to Cairo or shipped by sea to Port Said, which borders Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula, about 150 kms to the west of Al Arish. From there, it is trucked to the city of Al Arish, on the Mediterranean coast. Some aid is also flown directly to the Egyptian city.

Once in Cairo or Al Arish, the aid undergoes its first check. International agencies submit a detailed inventory of each shipment to the Israeli military via the U.N. for clearance. Israel has long banned “dual use” items that it says could be used by Hamas to make weapons.

Of 153 requests made to the Israeli authorities for goods to enter Gaza between Jan. 11 and March 15, 100 were cleared, 15 were rejected outright and another 38 were pending, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs told Reuters. U.N. officials didn’t specify whether a request referred to a specific number of trucks or volume of aid. It takes almost a month on average to get a response, according to minutes of a meeting of aid agencies seen by Reuters.

The Israeli military says it approves almost 99% of the Gaza-bound trucks it inspects and that once the goods are inside the enclave, it is the responsibility of the international aid organizations to distribute it. The inspection process “isn’t the impediment” to aid “getting into the Gaza Strip,” said Shimon Freedman, a spokesman for COGAT, the Israeli military branch that handles aid transfers.

Diplomatic wrangling by countries donating aid can also create snarls in the delivery process. U.N. officials told Reuters that because aid comes not only from international agencies but also directly from individual donor countries, the process of deciding which trucks go to the front of the queue can be thorny even before they depart Al Arish.

The Egyptian Red Crescent official said donor countries “drop off aid in Al Arish or at Al Arish airport and walk away and say, ‘We gave out aid to Gaza.’” It is the Red Crescent and Egyptian authorities who then bear the responsibility of getting the aid to Gaza, he said.

From Al Arish, the trucks make the 50-kilometer journey to the Rafah crossing point on the Egypt-Gaza border.

Next stop: Israel’s truck-scanning centers.

Once they reach the Rafah crossing, some trucks are then required to drive along the Egypt-Israel border for 40 kilometers to an inspection facility on the Israeli side called Nitzana. Here the goods are physically checked by Israeli soldiers who use scanning machines and sniffer dogs, according to U.N. and other aid agency staff.

Some items get rejected during the physical inspection, in particular ones Israel believes could be used by Hamas and other armed groups for military purposes. Some shipments carrying dual-use items are sent back to Al Arish. The same item that is let through one day, can be rejected on another day, U.N. officials and aid workers said.

U.N. agencies say solar panels, metal tent poles, oxygen tanks, generators and water purification equipment are among the items the military has rejected.

Pezzati, the Oxfam worker, said he saw a warehouse in Al Arish in early March that was filled with items banned by Israel. “There were crutches, camping toilets, hygiene kits, disinfectants for doctors, for surgery,” he said.

COGAT’S Freedman said there is a publicized list of what constitutes dual-use items, but there isn’t a “blanket ban” on these goods. If Israeli authorities “understand what exactly it is necessary for, we can coordinate it,” he said. But Israel wants to be sure that goods aren’t going to be “used by Hamas for terrorist activities,” he said.

Israel’s inspections, Freedman said, aren’t the reason for any backlog in aid. “We have the capacity to inspect more humanitarian aid than the international organizations can distribute,” he said.

The Israeli military says it can scan a total of 44 trucks an hour at Nitzana and at a crossing from Israel into Gaza where aid trucks are inspected, at Kerem Shalom. But aid agency officials say the actual number scanned is fewer. The military declined to say how many hours Nitzana and Kerem Shalom are open each day.

Once the trucks pass inspection at Nitzana, they make the 40-kilometer journey back to Rafah, where they wait to cross into Gaza.

In late January, groups of Israelis, including friends and relatives of the more than 130 people still being held hostage by Hamas, began protesting against the delivery of aid to Gaza. Between late January and early March, the protests effectively shut down either Nitzana or Kerem Shalom for a total of 16 days, according to aid agencies.

At the Kerem Shalom crossing, goods are unloaded from the scanned trucks and reloaded onto trucks that have been vetted by the Israeli army, according to U.N. and aid agency workers. These “sanitized” trucks then make a 1 kilometer journey to a warehouse inside Gaza where the aid is again offloaded. The goods are then placed on trucks driven by Palestinians and taken to mostly U.N.-run warehouses in Rafah.

Under growing international pressure, Israel earlier this month initiated a new route for the delivery of aid directly to northern Gaza, known as the 96th gate. By March 20, COGAT said at least 86 international aid trucks had entered via the new crossing.

“There is a sufficient amount of food entering Gaza every day,” said Col. Moshe Tetro, a COGAT official overseeing Gaza.

The new route was initiated “as part of a pilot in order to prevent Hamas from taking over the aid,” COGAT said in a post on social media site X. Freedman, though, said he didn’t have “specific evidence” he could share about Hamas pilfering aid.

Hamas official Naim rejected the accusation that the group was stealing aid. “We have been cooperating and are cooperating with every single state and humanitarian organization so that the aid reaches people in dire need,” he said.

AN ARDUOUS JOURNEY

Once inside Gaza, the aid shipments face more challenges.

Several convoys have been attacked on the stretch of road from Kerem Shalom to Gaza warehouses by people carrying crude weapons such as axes and box-cutters, according to U.N. officials and truck drivers. Deeper inside Gaza, others have been swarmed by crowds of people desperate for food.

In an incident that galvanized aid efforts, more than 100 people were killed in late February when a crowd descended on an aid convoy organized by Israel.

Security for food convoys traveling the short distance from the crossing points to warehouses in Rafah also deteriorated after several strikes by the Israeli military killed at least eight policemen in Gaza, according to U.N. officials. Israel says all police are members of Hamas.

“Whether they’re Hamas or not I don’t know, but they were doing a job for us in terms of crowd control,” said Jamie McGoldrick, a senior U.N. official. “The police are less willing to do that now.”

Aid agencies mostly now negotiate their own security with local communities, McGoldrick said.

Reuters reported recently that armed and masked men from an array of clans and factions in Gaza had begun providing security to aid convoys.

Police officers in Gaza “are Hamas, they are part of the Hamas terrorist organization,” COGAT’s Freedman said. Israel doesn’t target humanitarian convoys, “we try to assist them, but Hamas is our enemy.”

Storing aid in Gaza has also become a problem. Warehouses have been damaged by the fighting and occasionally looted. Of the 43 warehouses in Gaza that were operational before the war, only 22 are now working, according to the Logistics Cluster, a U.N.-run logistics facilitator for aid agencies.

In mid-March, an Israeli airstrike hit a U.N. food distribution center in southern Gaza, killing several people. Israel said it killed a Hamas commander in the attack. Hamas said the man targeted by Israel was a member of its police force.

From the warehouses, aid is delivered to southern Gaza, where the majority of the population is now located.

Making deliveries to northern Gaza is more fraught.

Roads to the north have been bombed by Israel and there are delays as trucks are held up or denied access at Israeli army checkpoints, say U.N. and other aid agency officials. Aid convoys are also often looted before reaching their destination by crowds of people desperate for food, U.N. officials said.

U.N. officials told Reuters that humanitarian agencies had made 158 requests to the Israeli military to deliver aid to northern Gaza from the beginning of the war to March 14. Of those, the military denied 57, they said.

COGAT’s Freedman said some requests to move aid inside Gaza have been rejected because aid agencies didn’t coordinate sufficiently with Israel.

“They weren't able to tell us exactly where that aid was going,” he said. “And if we don't know where it's going to, we don't know it's not going to end up in the hands of Hamas.”

In southern Gaza, residents are desperately waiting for aid.

“People have nothing to eat at all, nor do they have a place to stay, or a refuge,” said Suleiman al-Jaal, a local truck driver who said he has been attacked transporting aid in Gaza. “This is not a life. No matter how much aid they bring in, it’s not enough.”

AFP
Mon, March 25, 2024 

Mutliple foreign nations have resorted to airdropping aid into Gaza, with the humanitarian situation increasingly dire (-)

A military plane banked over the war-ravaged ruins of Gaza City dropping dozens of black parachutes carrying food aid.

On the ground, where almost no building within sight was still standing, hungry men and boys raced towards the beach where most of the aid seemed to have landed.

Dozens of them jostled intensely to get to the food, with scrums forming up and down the rubble-strewn dunes.

"People are dying just to get a can of tuna," said Mohamad al-Sabaawi, carrying an almost empty bag on his shoulder, a young boy beside him.

"The situation is tragic, as if we are in a famine. What can we do? They mock us by giving us a small can of tuna."

Aid groups say only a fraction of the supplies required to meet basic humanitarian needs have arrived in Gaza since October, while the UN has warned of famine in the north of the territory by May without urgent intervention.

The aid entering the Gaza Strip by land is far below pre-war levels, at around 150 vehicles a day compared to at least 500 before the war, according to UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

With Gazans increasingly desperate, foreign governments have turned to airdrops, in particular in the hard-to-reach northern parts of the territory including Gaza City.

The United States, France and Jordan are among several countries conducting airdrops to people living within the ruins of what was the besieged territory's biggest city.

But the aircrews themselves told AFP that the drops were insufficient.

US Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Jeremy Anderson noted earlier this month that what they were able to deliver was only a "drop in the bucket" of what was needed.

The air operation has also been marred by deaths. Five people on the ground were killed by one drop and 10 others injured after parachutes malfunctioned, according to a medic in Gaza.

Calls have mounted for Israel to allow in more aid overland, while Israel has blamed the UN and UNRWA for not distributing aid in Gaza.

"Palestinians in Gaza desperately need what has been promised -- a flood of aid. Not trickles. Not drops," UN chief Antonio Guterres said on Sunday after visiting Gaza's southern border crossing with Egypt at Rafah.

"Looking at Gaza, it almost appears that the four horsemen of war, famine, conquest and death are galloping across it," he added.

The war was sparked by Hamas's unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel, which resulted in about 1,160 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.

Israel launched a retaliatory bombardment and invasion of Gaza aimed at destroying Hamas that has killed at least 32,333 people, according to the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza.

Returning home in Gaza City with little to keep his family going, Sabaawi said their situation was miserable.

"We are the people of Gaza, waiting for aid drops, willing to die to get a can of beans -- which we then share among 18 people."

bur-fg/jm/dcp


Israel besieges two more Gaza hospitals, demands evacuations, Palestinians say

Nidal al-Mughrabi

Updated Sun, March 24, 2024 









By Nidal al-Mughrabi

CAIRO (Reuters) -Israeli forces besieged two more Gaza hospitals on Sunday, pinning down medical teams under heavy gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent said, and Israel said it had captured 480 militants in continued clashes at Gaza's main Al Shifa hospital.

Israel says hospitals in the Palestinian enclave, where war has been raging for over five months, are used by Hamas militants as bases. It has released videos and pictures supporting the claim.

Hamas and medical staff deny the accusations.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said one of its staff was killed when Israeli tanks suddenly pushed back into areas around Al-Amal and Nasser hospitals in the southern city of Khan Younis, amid heavy bombardment and gunfire.

Israeli forces began operating around Al-Amal, the military said, following "precise intelligence ... which indicated that terrorists are using civilian infrastructure for terror activities in the area of Al-Amal."

Israeli armoured forces sealed off Al-Amal Hospital and carried out extensive bulldozing operations in its vicinity, the Red Crescent said in a statement.

"All of our teams are in extreme danger at the moment and are completely immobilised," it said.

The Red Crescent said Israeli forces were now demanding the complete evacuation of staff, patients and displaced people from Al Amal's premises and were firing smoke bombs into the area to force out its occupants.

A displaced Palestinian was killed inside the hospital compound after being hit in the head by Israeli fire, the Red Crescent said in a later update.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said dozens of patients and medical staffers had been detained by Israeli forces at Al Shifa in Gaza City in the enclave's north that has been under Israeli control for a week.

The Hamas-run government media office said Israeli forces had killed five Palestinian doctors during their seven-day-old swoop on Al Shifa.

The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on that report. It said earlier that it had killed over 170 gunmen in the raid, which the Palestinian Health Ministry said had also caused the deaths of five patients.

Al Shifa is one of the few healthcare facilities even partially operational in north Gaza, and - like others - had also been housing some of the nearly 2 million civilians - over 80% of Gaza's population - displaced by the war.

"Right now, Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists are barricading themselves inside Shifa hospital wards," said Israeli military spokesperson, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari.

Hagari said Hamas gunmen were firing at soldiers from inside the emergency and maternity wards of the hospital, and also firing mortars at troops in the hospital, causing damage.

The Hamas-run government media office said they "categorically refute this."

"How can they claim this while their soldiers roam and frolic inside the complex with ease, conducting interrogations with displaced persons, patients, and the wounded," said media office director Ismail Al-Thawabta.

AIR STRIKE KILLS SEVEN IN RAFAH

Reuters has been unable to access Gaza's contested hospital areas and verify accounts by either side.

Khan Younis residents said Israeli forces had also advanced and formed a cordon around Nasser Hospital in the city's west under cover of heavy air and ground fire.

In Rafah, Gaza's southernmost town on the Egyptian border that has become the last refuge for half of Gaza's uprooted population, an Israeli air strike on a house killed seven people, health officials said.

At least 32,226 Palestinians have been killed, among them 84 in the past 24 hours, and 74,518 injured in Israel's air and ground offensive into the densely populated coastal territory since Oct. 7, its health ministry said in a Sunday update.

Israel launched the offensive after Hamas-led Islamist militants attacked its south on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and taking 253 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

U.S.-backed mediation by Qatar and Egypt has so far failed to secure a Hamas-Israel ceasefire, prisoner releases and unfettered aid to Gaza civilians facing famine, with each side sticking to core demands.

Hamas wants any truce deal to include an Israeli commitment to end the war and withdraw forces from Gaza. Israel has ruled this out, saying it will keep fighting until Hamas is eradicated as a political and military force.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the backlog of aid destined for Gaza as a moral outrage during a visit to the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing on Saturday.

Speaking in Cairo on Sunday, Guterres said the only effective and efficient way to deliver heavy goods to meet Gaza's humanitarian needs was by road.

The United States and other countries have tried using air drops and ships to deliver aid, but U.N. aid officials say deliveries can only be scaled up by land, accusing Israel of impeding relief, which Israel denies.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi and Emily Rose; editing by Mark Heinrich, Tomasz Janowski and Marguerita Choy)

Pro-Palestinian protesters shut down security line at San Francisco International Airport

Noah Goldberg
Wed, March 13, 2024 

The road in front of the international terminal sits empty at San Francisco International Airport on April 2, 2020. Pro-Palestinian protesters blocked off a security line at the airport Wednesday morning. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Pro-Palestinian protesters calling for a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war blocked off a security line at San Francisco International Airport on Wednesday morning.

More than two dozen protesters linked arms and blocked the entrance to the airport's G gates, photos from the scene show. The protesters held a Palestinian flag with the words "Permanent Ceasefire" written on it.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that there were "as many as 200" protesters and that they were also blocking the A gates. Some protested outside the airport as well.

The airport continued operations.

"There is a protest in the International Terminal," the airport said in a post on the social media site X. "The terminal remains open. Passengers are being re-routed around the activity."

The airport also recommended that travelers get dropped off at the Kiss and Fly lot at the Rental Car Center and take the AirTrain as opposed to trying to arrive directly at the International Terminal curb.

"We do not want to be here. We are forced to be here because we have lost count of the petitions we've sent, the emails we've sent, of the meetings we've had with our congresspeople, of the days we've marched through the streets begging our government to hear the millions of voices for cease-fire," said one protester, in a video shared by reporter Dena Takruri.

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.


SFO protest over Gaza creates chaos at airport

Tom Vacar
Wed, March 13, 2024 

SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco International Airport was the site of a demonstration by pro-Palestinian protesters demanding a ceasefire in Gaza who showed up in force on Wednesday morning, and despite the noise and chaos, flights still took off on time.

A group called Critical Resistance showed up at SFO about 8:30 a.m. and members held a big black banner that read "Stop the World for Gaza" in front of the TSA security line for the A Gates at the international terminal.

Activists also locked arms with each other, blocking Gate G at Terminal 1. Others marched in a circle on the road outside the airport, and still others chanted and spoke inside the building. Organizer Joshua Caldwell said about 300 protesters gathered.

Organizers said the protest lasted 153 minutes, one minute for each day the Israel-Hamas war has lasted. Oddly enough, much of the international terminal remained open for food items and restrooms.

The demonstrators all cleared out by noon and there was no immediate word of arrests.

Several travelers were disturbed by the commotion.

"It's not right," Kamaljit Singh said. "It's inconvenient. "If they want attention, they should march at the White House."

"I think it's a good way to demonstrate your viewpoint on Gaza, but, stopping other people from traveling I don't think is the way to do that," said traveler Preston Peeler.

SFO spokesman Doug Yakel said passengers were being re-routed to avoid the protest.

Travelers seeking to reach the international terminal were encouraged by SFO to get dropped off at the rental car center and take an air train to the terminal.

Protesters calling for a ceasefire in Gaza held a demonstration at San Francisco International Airport on March 13, 2024. Photo: Critical Resistance(KTVU FOX 2)

Other passengers traveling by taxis or rideshare services should get picked up or dropped off at domestic terminals, SFO said.

Yakel said the protesters were peaceful.

"The protest leaders we worked with held true to the commitments that they made when they said they were going to finish their activity at a certain time. And, that does require coordination, it does require negotiation. We certainly implemented some alternate plans to get our passengers where they needed to go around this protest activity," Yakel said.

The protest had also not caused any delays to BART service at SFO, the transit agency said.

By about 10 a.m., police had arrived with buses but had not yet been seen arresting anyone, although officers were seen writing tickets to illegally parked cars and towing them away. Caldwell said participants were glad that nobody was arrested and that the group felt it had support for its actions from some travelers.

By noon, the chanting had stopped and the protesters had all disbursed. Caldwell said the decision to disperse was made for the safety of protesters, but not because of any specific threat.

Caldwell said the protesters were Bay Area residents who were not part of any organization or group besides their shared motivation to call for an immediate ceasefire and an end to U.S. military aid to Israel.

There have been protests around the nation and the Bay Area over the treatment of Palestinians in Gaza since the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7.

A massive protest occurred on the Bay Bridge in November 2023 when hundreds of Pro-Palestine protesters tied up traffic during rush hour, calling out to world leaders to end the war during the APEC summit when President Biden was in town.

Bay City News contributed to this report.


A woman bangs a drum and speaks in a megaphone at SFO during a Gaza protest. March 14, 2024


Police cars and tow trucks wait outside SFO during Gaza protest. March 13, 2024


Protesters take over SFO to demande a ceasefire in Gaza. March 13, 2024

Ceasefire protests at SFO March 13, 2024.

After pro-Palestinian events, protesters will face new restrictions in Miami Beach

Aaron Leibowitz
Wed, March 13, 2024 

The Miami Beach City Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to support a resolution by Mayor Steven Meiner for the city to set “parameters for reasonable time, place and manner restrictions” for protests, pointing to several pro-Palestinian demonstrations in the city in recent months.

The resolution also calls for police to inform elected officials of all protests planned in the city within one hour of police learning a protest is expected to occur.

It comes two days after police directed pro-Palestinian protesters to a “free speech zone” near the Aspen Ideas climate conference at the Miami Beach Convention Center, saying they could not stand directly outside the event’s entrance for security reasons.

READ MORE: Gaza war protesters told to use ‘free speech zone’ outside Miami Beach climate conference

To support his proposal, Meiner cited pro-Palestinian protests at which he claimed “our laws have been violated.” During a public comment period, the mayor cut off one speaker who referred to the Israeli government’s war in Gaza as a “genocide” and suggested that Meiner’s proposal was aimed at restricting free speech related to Israel.

“I‘m not going to sit here and allow you to make accusations about the Israeli government,” Meiner said, calling the statements “antisemitic.”

Several speakers said they believed the proposal was aimed at speech that city officials find objectionable.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said governments can limit the time, place and manner of speech if it serves a significant government interest and is “content neutral” and “narrowly tailored.”

Meiner’s item Wednesday calls for the city to create restrictions in order to “regulate and control future protests and demonstrations to the fullest extent permitted by law.” The resolution does not refer to pro-Palestinian protests or any specific types of demonstrations.

The details of the city’s regulations on protests have not yet been determined by city staff.

Pro-Palestinian protesters rallied outside of Art Basel at the Miami Beach Convention Center on Dec. 8, 2023.

Mayor cites protest at synagogue

At Wednesday’s meeting, Meiner showed video clips of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protesting a speech late last month by lawyer Alan Dershowitz at Temple Emanu-El in Miami Beach. In one clip from outside the synagogue, elderly people are seen crossing the street and walking through a group of protesters chanting and holding signs on a sidewalk.

“As mayor, I will not tolerate our residents being harassed and accosted and threatened for simply trying to pray,” Meiner said, comparing the images to “Nazi Germany.” There were no reports of protesters causing physical harm to synagogue members.

Commissioner David Suarez said he believed the video showed an insufficient police presence outside the synagogue protecting its members and suggested that Police Chief Wayne Jones’ handling of the incident was “grounds for firing.”

“If that was a KKK rally, it would have been different,” Suarez said.

He added that, as someone who is half Israeli and one of four Jewish elected officials in Miami Beach, including Meiner, he found it “concerning” that they were not notified of the protest.

Jones was sworn in as the first Black police chief of Miami Beach in August. In response to Suarez’s comments, Jones said he should have informed elected officials of the protest ahead of time but defended the policing of the event. He said there were 22 police officers present, including four inside the synagogue who removed three protesters who interrupted Dershowitz’s speech.

Those three people said they had obtained tickets to the event, as previously reported by the Miami Herald. Video showed one of the protesters being physically attacked by a man inside. Jones said during Wednesday’s meeting that the protester was “battered by a congregant,” though no charges have been filed.

READ MORE: Protesters forcibly removed from Miami Beach temple hosting Alan Dershowitz, one attacked

After Meiner’s resolution was approved, multiple members of the public said they disagreed with the way Suarez had spoken to the police chief. Miami Beach resident Carla Probus said she supports the Israeli government but was troubled by the conversation.

“It is a constitutional right to be able to speak,” Probus said. “We’ve got to stop the bullying. It’s out of control.”

Jones told the Herald in a statement after Wednesday’s discussion that “as the chief of police and a former resident of Miami Beach, I emphasize my unwavering commitment to the safety and well-being of every resident in our city, including our valued Jewish community.”

“Upholding the provisions of the U.S. Constitution and prioritizing the protection of all who live, work and visit in our city remains my top priorities,” he said.
Previous concerns about pro-Palestinian protest

In December, Meiner had raised concerns about a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Convention Center during Art Basel, at which a group of artists unfurled a banner that read, “Let Palestine Live.” About 100 people rallied while waving Palestinian flags and holding signs to call for a permanent ceasefire in the war in Gaza.

During that event, Miami Beach police tried to keep protesters away from Convention Center doors. Police arrested two protesters and charged one with resisting without violence and the other with resisting without violence and disorderly conduct.

READ MORE: Artists and activists stage pro-Palestinian protest in front of Art Basel Miami Beach

Miami Beach police try to keep pro-Palestinian protesters away from the Miami Beach Convention Center doors at a protest during Art Basel on Dec. 8, 2023.

Days later, Meiner sponsored an item on the City Commission agenda in which he pointed out that protesters were chanting the controversial phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The mayor’s item called for the city to set “parameters for reasonable time, place and manner restrictions for protests, including discussion of incitement to violence vs. free speech.”

Meiner never called that item for discussion by the City Commission. It was retooled without any reference to specific pro-Palestinian protests in Wednesday’s resolution.

“This is a nonpartisan government,” Meiner said Wednesday. “Clearly, we are respectful of free speech.”

Aaron Leibowitz, Ashley Miznazi
Wed, March 13, 2024 

When a small group of pro-Palestinian protesters arrived to the Miami Beach Convention Center on Monday evening, hoping to hand out flyers to attendees of the Aspen Ideas climate conference, they were surprised to be met by police.

They say officers told them that only conference attendees could enter the area around the Convention Center, with one exception: a barricaded “free speech zone” for protesters at the southwest corner of Pride Park.

Members of the group, however, say the zone is too far away from the conference entrance for most attendees to see or hear them.

“We were surrounded by cops. The most people who would’ve seen us there would be the odd man out trying to get their car in the Meridian [Avenue] garage,” said Glory Jones, a protester with Jewish Voice for Peace, referring to a nearby parking garage. “By having borders to where we speak, you’re essentially saying there’s certain zones that free speech doesn’t apply, that the Constitution doesn’t apply.”

A “security zone” around the Convention Center campus was set up at some point Monday afternoon, hours after the conference began that morning. Similar security zones were not in place during the first two years of the conference in 2022 and 2023, except when Vice President Kamala Harris spoke at the conference last year and roads were closed off by the Secret Service.

Miami Beach police set up the perimeter to provide security for “high-level officials and other attendees,” including “federal cabinet level officials, a U.S. governor, foreign dignitaries, and over 50 United States mayors,” police spokesperson Christopher Bess said in a statement Monday night. He did not respond to an inquiry about why a different approach was taken for this year’s conference.

Speakers at this week’s event include U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker and Lauren Sánchez, vice chair of the Bezos Earth Fund. The conference runs through Wednesday.

Only credentialed attendees can enter the security zone around the Convention Center campus, said Bess, “except for those who wish to exercise their First Amendment right to protest, demonstrate, or leaflet.”

“A demonstration zone has been created within Pride Park to provide a forum to exercise those rights,” he said.

Police said the pro-Palestinian protesters could stand in an area at the southwest end of Pride Park, which remained surrounded by barricades Tuesday. The group said it would have been too far away from the conference entrance at the Miami Beach Convention Center (left) for most attendees to see or hear them.

Bess added that demonstrators are also “free to speak to and interact with all convention attendees at the entrance to the Security Zone, through which all credentialed attendees must pass.”

That is ultimately what approximately two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters decided to do Monday, standing in front of a parking garage on 17th Street near Convention Center Drive rather than utilizing the designated protest zone in Pride Park.


On Tuesday morning, conference organizers sent attendees an update, telling them to enter from 17th Street “due to road closures” and to “wear your badge at all times.”

Pro-Palestinian protesters moved to the sidewalk across from the 17th Street parking garage after being told by police they couldn’t stand outside the Miami Beach Botantical Garden across from a climate conference at the Convention Center.

The U.S. Supreme Court has said that governments can limit the time, place and manner of speech if it serves a significant government interest and is “content neutral” and “narrowly tailored.”

Thomas Julin, a First Amendment attorney with the Gunster law firm in Miami, said the constitutionality of free speech zones depends on the specific circumstances. Governments can’t limit speech based on the type of message protesters are espousing, he said, and shouldn’t interfere with their ability to communicate with people they are hoping to reach. Julin also said cutting off the ability to protest on public streets and sidewalks is typically difficult to defend.

Concerns would arise if the restrictions “are actually very content- or speaker-specific, and [police] are just doing things because the [city] officials disagree with the content of the speech,” Julin said.

Mayor wants to regulate protests

Some of the city’s elected officials, including Mayor Steven Meiner, previously raised concerns about a pro-Palestinian protest outside the Convention Center during Art Basel in December.

Days after the Dec. 8 protest, Meiner sponsored an item on the City Commission agenda in which he pointed out that protesters were chanting the controversial phrase, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free.” The mayor’s item called for the city to set “parameters for reasonable time, place and manner restrictions for protests, including discussion of incitement to violence vs. free speech.”

At a virtual meeting with residents in January, Meiner said he was “upset” that the protest was allowed to take place directly outside the Convention Center entrance. A group of artists unfurled a banner that read, “Let Palestine Live,” and about 100 people rallied while waving Palestinian flags and holding signs to call for a permanent ceasefire in the ongoing war in Gaza.

During that event, Miami Beach police tried to keep protesters away from Convention Center doors. Police arrested two protesters and charged one with resisting without violence and the other with resisting without violence and disorderly conduct.

Meiner never called the December item for discussion by city commissioners. But he is now sponsoring a resolution on the agenda for Wednesday’s City Commission meeting that calls for the city to create “time, place and manner restrictions” in order to “regulate and control future protests and demonstrations to the fullest extent permitted by law.” The resolution does not refer to pro-Palestinian protests or any specific types of demonstrations.

The mayor’s resolution also calls for police to inform him and city commissioners of all protests planned in the city within one hour of police learning a protest is expected to occur.

In December, Commissioner David Suarez raised concerns that police didn’t tell elected officials about the pro-Palestinian protest outside Art Basel until the day before it was set to take place. Suarez emailed City Manager Alina Hudak to say that “the failure to provide us with this information when it first came to the administration’s attention is very disappointing.”

Miami Beach police did not immediately respond to an inquiry about whether the demonstration zone at the Aspen conference was implemented in response to concerns from elected officials. Meiner and his chief of staff, Veronica Coley, did not respond to requests for comment.

Miami Herald staff writer Alex Harris contributed to this report.

Ashley Miznazi is a climate change reporter for the Miami Herald funded by the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Family Foundation in partnership with Journalism Funding Partners.

Three-quarters of Gaza marked as IDF evacuation zones, BBC finds

Ahmed Nour, Abdirahim Saeed - BBC Arabic
Mon, May 20, 2024 

[Reuters]

More than three-quarters of Gaza's territory have been designated as evacuation zones by the Israeli military since the war against Hamas began in October, an analysis by BBC Arabic has found.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has issued evacuation orders to Gazans since Israel launched a military campaign on 7 October in response to a cross-border attack that day by Hamas, in which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 people were taken hostage. The Israeli response has killed more than 35,000 people in Gaza so far, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

The BBC’s analysis shows the cumulative areas designated as evacuation zones amount to 281 sq km (108 sq miles). That is the equivalent of 77% of Gaza's territory.

The IDF has told BBC Arabic that its evacuation instructions are protecting civilians by directing them to safer areas.

The UN and other aid agencies insist that there are no safe areas for Gaza's estimated two million civilians. They have also questioned the suitability of an IDF-designated “humanitarian zone” in the territory.

Since the beginning of the war, the IDF has issued dozens of evacuation warnings affecting various areas of Gaza as part of its military operations against Hamas.

By mid-May, only less than a quarter of Gaza’s territory was not designated as an evacuation zone.


[BBC]

Gaza is a densely populated enclave, around 41km (25 miles) long and 10km wide, bounded by the Mediterranean Sea on one side and fenced off from Israel and Egypt at its borders.

On 7 October, the first day of the conflict, the IDF directed civilians in different parts of Gaza to seek shelter, before it launched its first air strikes.

Later in October, the IDF told civilians in the north, including Gaza City, and central areas to move to south of the Wadi Gaza riverbed.

The IDF announced new evacuation zones in November which included more of central Gaza and parts of the south.

At the start of December, the IDF began issuing evacuation maps where Gaza was divided into blocks to provide more precise instructions, after coming under international pressure.

In December and January, evacuation warnings were expanded further to the south to include the city of Khan Younis and surrounding areas.

In early April, the IDF renewed warnings not to return to the northern parts of Gaza.

In May, almost half of the city of Rafah was added to the evacuation zones, as the IDF ground troops advanced into southern Gaza from the east.

Civilians were simultaneously urged to move to an “expanded humanitarian area” stretching from al-Mawasi, just north of Rafah, to the nearby regions of Khan Younis and Deir al-Balah.

The IDF also recently called for people in and around Jabalia and Beit Lahia in northern Gaza to evacuate to shelters in western Gaza City, as it started fresh operations against Hamas in the two areas.


[BBC]

None of the IDF’s evacuation instructions since October have mentioned when evacuation zones will be safe again, or when residents will be able to go back to their homes.

The BBC sought a response from the IDF on the scale of the evacuation zones.

The IDF reiterated that the evacuation warnings were there to protect civilians, but it did not specifically address our findings.

“The IDF is committed to international law and operates accordingly,” a statement sent to the BBC said.

Up to 1.7 million people have been displaced across the Gaza Strip, the majority multiple times, according to the UN's Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa.
Fleeing Rafah

On 7 May, Israel seized the Gazan side of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, after IDF troops advanced into the area.

The military ordered civilians to evacuate eastern Rafah for their own safety before launching the offensive.

About 1.5 million displaced civilians had been sheltering in Rafah before then, according to the UN.

Unrwa reported that more than 810,000 Palestinians had fled as of Monday, as Israeli tanks pushed into the city.

In one satellite image captured on 8 May, an area in central Rafah which was once busy with tents for displaced people looked deserted.

[BBC]

The IDF has been directing civilians towards the “expanded humanitarian area” in al-Mawasi, a narrow coastal strip of agricultural land that was first designated as a “humanitarian zone” in October.

The expanded zone now measures 60 sq km.

The IDF said the area includes “field hospitals, tents and increased amounts of food, water, medication and additional supplies”.

A satellite image captured on 8 May shows what appears to be a new field hospital which has been constructed in Deir al-Balah.

[BBC]

The UN has questioned the idea of directing civilians to al-Mawasi.

“Al-Mawasi, in particular, is an area that is a lot of sand and desert,” Louise Wateridge, communications officer of Unrwa told BBC Arabic.

The IDF’s designated humanitarian areas had limited infrastructure and supplies, she added.

Fidaa Alaraj, a co-ordinator for the charity Oxfam in Gaza, says the humanitarian situation is getting worse in al-Mawasi.

"It is very crowded... Tents are everywhere and are now right on the beach front," she explained.

"There is also not enough food, water and fuel to go around," she added.

Ms Alaraj, a Palestinian from northern Gaza, said she had been displaced several times since the start of the war herself.

BBC Arabic spoke to other Palestinians who had been forced to move several times already.

A displaced woman from Rafah said there was neither water nor electricity when she arrived in al-Mawasi.

Hamdan told BBC Arabic that he had been displaced four times since the conflict began.

"We came to al-Mawasi and could not find tents. And the ones that were available were very expensive. There are no toilets and we had to bury barrels underground to use them as toilets.”

“This is expensive, and life is very difficult. There is no hygiene at all," he added.

Additional reporting by Lamees Altalebi and Paul Cusiac