Author: Brett Wilkins

New reporting published Wednesday details the impotence and insincerity of President Joe Biden’s “multiple threats, warnings, and admonishments” to Israel as it annihilated the Gaza Strip, killing tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians while receiving tens of billions of dollars in U.S. arms and unwavering diplomatic support.

Writing for ProPublica, Brett Murphy showed how multiple “red lines” issued by Biden administration officials were ignored by Israel with impunity. Murphy highlighted Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s October 2024 demand that Israel take “urgent and sustained actions” to improve humanitarian conditions in Gaza – mainly by allowing far more aid into the embattled strip – within 30 days or face a military aid cutoff.

Continue reading “Report Says Biden’s ‘Empty Threats’ on Gaza Fed Israeli Impunity”

A report published last Wednesday details how Israel forcibly expels Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in order to facilitate – and hide – genocidal attacks in evacuated areas, while forcing refugees into alleged humanitarian “safe zones” that are “intentionally designed to ensure the destruction of all life sheltering there.”

The Palestinian human rights group Al-Haq published the report, titled How to Hide a Genocide, which examines “the role of evacuation orders and safe zones in Israel’s genocidal campaign in Gaza.”

Continue reading “Rights Group Finds Israel Uses Gaza ‘Safe Zones’ to ‘Hide a Genocide’”

At least seven far-right members of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, are calling on the country’s defense minister to order the total destruction of northern Gaza’s food, water, and energy sources – most of which have already been obliterated by 15 months of relentless attacks – and the killing of any Palestinian who isn’t clearly surrendering to the attackers.

In a letter to Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz dated December 31, the lawmakers assert that the Israel Defense Forces’ (IDF) campaign to forcibly expel Palestinians from northern Gaza – which critics have called ethnic cleansing – “isn’t being done properly” and is not “achieving the war objectives as defined by the government, which is the dismantling of Hamas’ governing and military capabilities.”

Continue reading “Far-Right Israeli Lawmakers Demand ‘Complete Cleansing’ of Northern Gaza”

As Israeli forces stand accused of war crimes during attacks on multiple Gaza hospitals in recent days, Francesca Albanese – the United Nations special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories – on Monday implored the global medical community to respond by cutting ties with Israel.

“I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel’s full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide,” Albanese wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

I urge medical professionals worldwide to pursue the severance of all ties with Israel as a concrete way to forcefully denounce Israel's full destruction of the Palestinian healthcare system in Gaza, a critical tool of its ongoing genocide.#FreeDrHussanAbuSafiya https://t.co/qzZ7CqufI6

— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) December 30, 2024

Albanese amplified a post by Dr. Rupa Marya – one of the most vocal defenders of Palestinian human rights in the U.S. medical community – calling on Israeli forces to release Dr. Hussam Abu Safiya, director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahia.

Continue reading “UN Expert Urges Medical World to Cut Ties With Israel Amid Attacks on Gaza Hospitals”

A Human Rights Watch report published Thursday accuses Israel of “extermination and acts of genocide” in Gaza “by intentionally depriving Palestinian civilians there of adequate access to water, most likely resulting in thousands of deaths.”

Mirroring language used in Article II of the Genocide Convention to define the crime of genocide, HRW said that Israeli officials “have deliberately inflicted conditions of life calculated to bring about the destruction of part of the population in Gaza” by deliberately denying Palestinians “access to safe water for drinking and sanitation needed for basic human survival.”

“Israeli authorities and forces cut off and later restricted piped water to Gaza; rendered most of Gaza’s water and sanitation infrastructure useless by cutting electricity and restricting fuel; deliberately destroyed and damaged water and sanitation infrastructure and water repair materials; and blocked the entry of critical water supplies,” the report states.

Continue reading “Israel Committing ‘Extermination and Acts of Genocide’ by Depriving Gaza of Water: HRW”

Amid a relentless Israeli onslaught that has wrought monumental physical and psychological destruction in Gaza, a report published this week revealed that nearly all children in the embattled Palestinian enclave believe their death is imminent – and nearly half of them want to die.

The Gaza-based Community Training Center for Crisis Management, supported by War Child Alliance, surveyed more than 500 Palestinian children in Gaza last June and found that 96% of them fear imminent death, 92% are not accepting of reality, 79% suffer from nightmares, 77% avoid discussing traumatic events, 73% display signs of aggression, 49% wish to die because of the war, and many more “show signs of withdrawal and severe anxiety, alongside a pervasive sense of hopelessness.”

“This report lays bare that Gaza is one of the most horrifying places in the world to be a child,” War Child U.K. CEO Helen Pattinson said in a statement. “Alongside the leveling of hospitals, schools, and homes, a trail of psychological destruction has caused wounds unseen but no less destructive on children who hold no responsibility for this war.”

Continue reading “Study Finds 96% of Gaza Children Fear Imminent Death – And Half Want to Die”