Tag: ceasefire now

  • UN chief, at Gaza crossing, urges end to ‘nightmare’ of war

    UN chief, at Gaza crossing, urges end to ‘nightmare’ of war

    UN chief Antonio Guterres, on a visit to the doorstep of Gaza, on Saturday said the world has seen enough of the war’s horrors and appealed for a ceasefire to allow in more aid.

    ‘Palestinians in Gaza—children, women, men—remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare,’ he said on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing where truckloads of aid trickle into Gaza but the population is stalked by ‘hunger and starvation’.

    This handout pictured released by the United Nations press office shows UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres meeting with a Palestinian child evacuated from the Gaza Strip receiving treatment at the general hospital in El-Arish in Egypt’s northeastern North Sinai province on March 23, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict in the Palestinian territory between Israel and the militant group Hamas. (Photo by Mark GARTEN / UNITED NATIONS / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / UNITED NATIONS – MARK GARTEN” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS – RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE – MANDATORY CREDIT “AFP PHOTO / UNITED NATIONS – Mark Garten” – NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS – DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS /

    ‘I carry the voices of the vast majority of the world who have seen enough,’ Guterres said, deploring ‘communities obliterated, homes demolished, entire families and generations wiped out’.

    He reiterated that ‘nothing justifies the horrific attacks by Hamas’ against Israel, triggering the war on October 7.

    ‘And nothing justifies the collective punishment of the Palestinian people,’ the United Nations secretary-general said.

    Guterres, speaking at a lectern in front of the imposing gates to the Gaza side of  Rafah, through which aid trucks pass, said the ‘heartbreak and heartlessness of it all’ were clear.

    ‘A long line of blocked relief trucks on one side of the gates. The long shadow of starvation on the other,’ which he called ‘a moral outrage.’

    Guterres emphasised ‘it is more than time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire’ and appealed to Israel for ‘total, unfettered access for humanitarian goods throughout Gaza.’

    The UN chief, who makes an annual ‘solidarity mission’ to distressed Muslim communities during their holy fasting month, said that ‘in the Ramadan spirit of compassion, it is also time for the immediate release of all hostages’ captured in the October attacks and still held by militants in Gaza.

    Response from Israel

    Israel’s foreign minister said Saturday the United Nations had become an ‘anti-Israeli body’ under Antonio Guterres, after the UN chief called for a ceasefire on a visit to Gaza’s border.

    International outrage over the heavy civilian toll and humanitarian crisis in Gaza has further worsened the long strained ties between Israel and the world body.

    ‘Under his (Guterres’s) leadership, the UN has become an anti-Semitic and anti-Israeli body that shelters and emboldens terror,’ Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on social media platform X.

    The top Israeli diplomat criticised Guterres, who Katz said ‘stood today on the Egyptian side of the Rafah crossing and blamed Israel for the humanitarian situation in Gaza’, claiming instead that Hamas militants ‘plunder’ aid.

    Katz, whose government has accused staff at the UN agency for Palestinian refugees of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attack that triggered the war, also said Guterres spoke ‘without calling for the immediate, unconditional release of all Israeli hostages’.

    Vote at Security Council

    Meanwhile, a vote at the UN Security Council on a new text calling for an ‘immediate’ ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war was postponed to Monday, diplomatic sources told AFP, after a separate, US-lead draft resolution was vetoed.

    The United States, Israel’s main ally and military backer, had put forward a resolution mentioning ‘the imperative of an immediate and sustained ceasefire’ and condemning the October 7 attack by Hamas.

    Russia and China on Friday vetoed that resolution, which was also opposed by Arab states for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel immediately end its campaign in Gaza.

    The new ceasefire text was meant to go to a vote on Saturday, but was pushed back to allow further discussions, the diplomatic sources said.

    The new, tougher draft resolution, seen by AFP, ‘demands an immediate ceasefire’ for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan that leads ‘to a permanent sustainable ceasefire’ respected by all sides.

    Eight of the council’s 10 non-permanent members have been working on the draft, which also calls for the ‘immediate and unconditional’ release of hostages seized by Hamas and the lifting of ‘all barriers’ to humanitarian aid flowing into the besieged Gaza Strip.

    ‘We as (the) Arab Group unanimously endorse and support the draft resolution,’ said Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour, who had denounced the US-led text as biased.

    But US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield indicated opposition, saying the resolution would jeopardize ongoing diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages—the same reason the United States gave before vetoing previous ceasefire resolutions.

    ‘In its current form, that text fails to support sensitive diplomacy in the region. Worse, it could actually give Hamas an excuse to walk away from the deal on the table,’ she said.

    Friday’s text did not explicitly use the word ‘call,’ but simply stated that a ceasefire was imperative, and linked to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, to halt fighting in return for Hamas releasing hostages.

    ‘If the US is serious about a ceasefire, then please vote in favor of the other draft resolution, clearly calling for a ceasefire,’ China’s representative, Zhang Jun, said.

  • Gaza needs food to be airdropped to prevent starvation

    Gaza needs food to be airdropped to prevent starvation

    The people in Gaza who have managed to escape death by Israeli strikes in a war that has been forced on them are now dying of hunger and starvation. Videos of bread made out of animal feed and kids collecting flour accidently spilled on the ground are making rounds on social media leading to the drive for the ceasefire taking momentum. As recently as February 20, the UN Food Agency put a pause on its deliveries in the North of Gaza until the conditions are in place that allow for safe distributions.

    Families in Gaza are forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive with nearly five months of war and rapidly declining aid supplies leaving all 1.1 million children in Gaza facing starvation, Save the Children said. 

    Hind Khoudary, the Palestinian Journalist in Gaza reporting from the ground, took to her Instagram to plead to the world to airdrop food in Gaza as people have started eating leaves and are making bread out of animal feed. “People are eating leaves and animal food. “I am calling the world and all the countries to Airdrop food to Gaza,” she said in an Instagram story.

    Ali Jadallah, a photojournalist from Gaza, shared how her mother, a dialysis patient, is suffering because of the food and health crisis in Gaza. Finding food in Gaza is the most difficult thing nowadays.

    Journalist Anas Ajmal reported how he has been searching for a meal but could not find one in days.

    “Gaza has become a place of death and despair,” stated the Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths.

    Videos of hundreds of desperate and hungry Gazans heckling the UNRWA aid truck emerged from the besieged strip. Many reports from Gaza have already been warning the global authorities of impending famine and loss of lives due to hunger.

    Back in December, Human Rights Watch had accused the Israeli government of intentionally starving civilians in Gaza as part of its offensive in the besieged Palestinian territory. “The Israeli government is using starvation of civilians as a method of warfare in the occupied Gaza Strip, which is a war crime,” the New York-based group charged in a report.

    Additionally, The Times posted a report about the famine-stricken conditions of the people of Gaza where a mother revealed how her breasts no longer produce milk because of long periods of starvation and how her children are suffering immensely. Explaining the food crisis the article explained how Gazans are forced to eat rotten food and hunt cats to fulfill their needs as famine hits Gaza.

    More than a million people are displaced in Gaza but none is safe from hunger. It is rampant in Gaza, it is in the wasteland of al-Mawasi encampment in Gaza where handfuls of dirty flour are kneaded by mothers to make bread for their children.

    It is in the fires, stoked with plastic bottles, which produce nothing but choking black smoke. Children in Gaza no longer play but lie around, exhausted by hunger. It is in food that is rotten and makes you sick but is eaten just the same. Bissan shared in one of her videos how people have been having the only bread they have with the salt.

    The last nail in the coffin has duly been the suspension of the aid program of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees. Established in 1949 following the first Arab-Israeli war, the agency provides services including schooling, primary healthcare, and humanitarian aid to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. It is important to note that since the onset of the war on Gaza, Israeli authorities, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have accused it of fuelling anti-Israeli incitement – allegations it denies. UNRWA says it has provided aid to desperate people in Gaza and used its facilities to shelter those fleeing Israeli attacks. Meanwhile, the situation is getting worse with time.

    Time recently shared in an article, the hurdles around the idea of food airdrops in Gaza. “Some experts warn that humanitarian airdrops are not as simple as they sound. Aside from the cost of conducting them (up to seven times more than land transport, according to the U.N.’s World Food Programme), airdrops tend to be less efficient and more hazardous than other methods of providing humanitarian relief,” the article read.

    The biggest hurdle in Gaza’s case is the lack of safety in terms of the ongoing airstrikes of Israel and the damage it has done to the land of Gaza. Michel Schaffner, the head of air operations at the International Committee of the Red Cross, told TIME in an email that for this operation the specified land needs to be secure, large, and clean enough to be free of obstacles and people. “Once the cargo is on the ground, there need to be arrangements in place as regards who will collect it, where it will be stored, and how it will be distributed. … We do not do airdrops without these measures in place,” Time quotes him.

    Even though Israeli aggression is again the biggest opposing factor in this proposed solution, it is important to note that it is not a permanent solution to this problem, a ceasefire is.

    An Arabic saying implies that if someone dies of hunger, the neighbour should be charged with murder yet the whole world is watching a huge population dying of hunger and there is no action regarding that.

  • Israeli soldiers killed by their own bombs

    Israeli soldiers killed by their own bombs

    In a huge setback to Israel, 24 of its soldiers were killed in the biggest single-day losses since the start of its ground war in Gaza.

    The soldiers were killed on Monday, with the army saying 21 of them were reserve soldiers who got killed when rocket-propelled grenade fire hit a tank and two buildings they were trying to blow up.

    Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said an investigation was launched into the “disaster” and that Israel “must learn the necessary lessons”. Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said the “Deaths of 24 of our fighters, our best sons…is a heavy blow”.

    On the ground, fighting raged in Khan Yunis, the biggest city in southern Gaza, which the army said it had “encircled”.

    Witnesses said powerful explosions rocked Khan Yunis, as well as Deir al-Balah in north Gaza and Rafah in the south.

    Gaza’s Ministry of Health said Nasser Hospital and El Amal City Hospital in Khan Younis, among the few partially functioning hospitals in the territory, were under “extreme danger” from Israeli bombardment.

    “The buildings of the Nasser Medical Complex are exposed to shrapnel, endangering the lives of patients, staff and displaced people,” the ministry said on its Telegram channel on Tuesday.

    “The Israeli occupation places Nasser Medical Complex and El Amal Hospital in Khan Younis in extreme danger,” it said, calling for “urgent intervention” to safeguard both facilities.

    Moreover, Al-Jazeera just released a video compilation of Israeli soldiers filming themselves enjoying and being insensitive to the Palestinian properties.

  • Motaz is now in Qatar but others are still in Gaza. Here is who you should follow for updates on the genocide

    Motaz is now in Qatar but others are still in Gaza. Here is who you should follow for updates on the genocide

    Motaz Azaiza, the photojournalist called “The Eye of Gaza”, has evacuated the besieged strip after showing the world the reality of living in Palestine. He has landed in Qatar and has kickstarted the mission of taking the cause of advocating for the plight of Palestineans forward by participating in talk shows for Al-Jazeera. His absence on ground is missed.

    There are plenty of journalists on ground who are risking their lives to show the world the war crimes being committed by Israeli forces and the genocide of poor Gazans.

    Bisan is the leading journalist after Motaz. She is working with leading news portals and has shown daily life in Gaza since October 7. In her own words, she has been displaced more than thrice in the course of the last 100 days but is determined to keep documenting the genocide that is taking place in Gaza.

    Hind Khoudary, a reporter who has worked closely with Motaz and is still in Gaza, is taking refuge in Motaz’s home reporting the havoc inflicted upon Gaza by Israel.

    Hamdan Dahdouh is also one such journalist who is directly reporting from the ground showing through his camera lens what the seige has done.

    Roba Khaled is a TRT Arabi journalist and has been reporting from the ground while being a mother to an ailing daughter.

    Motasem Mortaja is a journalist working for different platforms and his Instagram account is a video library of the more than 100 days of war in Gaza.

    Saleh Aljafarawi is a young content creator and influencer from Gaza who is showing the world the horrors of war.

    Ali Jadallah is an award-winning photojournalist capturing raw emotions from the strip.

    Wael abo Omar is another journalist now sick with a cold, but not letting the mission of informing the world slip until he is alive.

    Belal Khaled has been reporting from day one and documenting the genocide up close.

  • Palestinian faith gives rise to Islamic belief system around the globe

    Palestinian faith gives rise to Islamic belief system around the globe

    It has been more than 100 days since Israel began the genocide in Gaza. Not just for people in the West but also for Muslims at large, this period has been a time of self-realization and a strengthening of their beliefs. Yakeen Institute for Islamic Research, surveyed 1800+ English-speaking Muslims to gauge the change of attitude in their religiosity and the results are astounding.

    Demographics of the Yakeen sample include 74 per cent female; 61 per cent live in North America, 13 per cent live in Europe, 18 per cent live in Asia, and 6 per cent live in Africa; 41 per cent are under 35 years of age; 50 per cent were South Asian, 17 per cent Arab, and 10 per cent black/African.

    70 per cent of people in Yakeen’s sample believe that the liberation of Palestine is a religious issue. Consequently, 93 per cent believe that Palestine is ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important to them personally, and 97 per cent believe its liberation is a high priority for the Muslim world, with 70 per cent saying it is the highest priority for the Muslim world. The people are also in agreement that Muslim nations should not normalize relations with Israel, with 96 per cent stating they are opposed to normalization and feel that it would cause additional harm to the people of Palestine.

    78 per cent of those surveyed reported that their relationship with Allah has improved since the assault on Gaza began. Yakeen Institute said that this is likely because people were reminded of death but the most important factor is the unshakeable faith of the people of Gaza, elevating the ummah’s religiosity and consciousness.

    There are many videos from the besieged strip but one, of a little boy thanking Allah Almighty even in the most dire circumstances where 8 of his family members have been martyred, is particularly hard-hitting.

    Witnessing this has caused 91 per cent of respondents to state that the people of Gaza have given them ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of religious inspiration, with 97 per cent reporting being ‘quite’ or ‘extremely’ proud of the people of Gaza.

    Many have started opening the Qur’an to understand the divine message that instills messages of resilience in the people of Gaza. Famous TikToker Meghan B Rice is one such example. 85 per cent of Muslims reported feeling ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of comfort in the Qur’an, and 80 per cent found similar levels of comfort in the biography (seerah) of Prophet Muhammad ﷺ. The Qur’an has come to life in new ways for Muslims.

    The details of the afterlife found in the Qur’an and Sunnah have also brought tremendous comfort and clarity to Muslims worldwide. For example, 96 per cent reported that knowing that our brothers and sisters who were martyred are alive in paradise brought ‘quite a bit’ or ‘a lot’ of comfort.

    Almost 30 Australian women accepted Islam seeing the steadfastness of Gazans.

    TikTok is the budding platform promoting such voices as the famous pro-Palestine Instagram account palestineonaplate posted, “The faith of the Palestinians in Gaza has woken up the world. Not just in support against the genocide that is happening but also towards Islam. Atheists, Christians, non-believers, reverts, everyone has been inspired by the faith the Gazans have in Allah and more and more people are converting to Islam because of this.”