YOUR CONTRIBUTIONS
We are trying to break free the $2,500 that we sent to Haitham that is held up due to what appears to be a typo in the transfer request.
From Hamad (lightly edited for clarity)
Hi Norm
Thankfully the one thousand I have sent to northern gaza has been distributed successfully to five desperate some of them are letterly starving
1000$=3650 shekels.
600 shekels for each
We distributed through our friends there to five families out of six,
The remaining family we couldn't reach yet from last week until now.
50 Shekels I left for the distributor to decide. Within two days if we fail to connect with the remaining family member we will give it to another. By the way I tried to send it to a guy that I know in al darraj area. He letterly (literally) once said to me before the war began "we are about 20 family members and we eat from one plate of food.”
This young guy he said hello for me and my family he used to come to diwan. The next day he was killed, second of July.
No word from Abu Saif (Hassan) or Saja.
From Nedal
Below is a photograph of our friend Nedal’s daughter Shahed, killed with her mother Tasahil and brother Majdey in the IDF air strike that seriously injured Nedal and destroyed his home in Nuseirat during the winter.
From Moataz, in response to my query on his situation
“My friend , My situation is more than bad. I have returned to Al-Zaytoun. There is no water, no food in the market, no security, no life, in addition to the sudden bombing at any moment, from all kinds of air and ground weapons. Excuse me if I tell you, we became like chickens in a cage. Every moment , chickens are slaughtered in front of us and we cannot do anything. I was convinced that humanity had died.
“is it the end??
“Thank you for asking for me , thank you.”
End Note
Moataz’s note reflects the actual situation on the ground, not the recent Israeli claims that there’s no famine and that safe zones exist. Shelling and aerial bombardment remain constant in the tiny Gaza Strip, with no place to flee.
From Haitham
“Thank goodness 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 my brother and his family managed to come to me walking from Khan yones. Last night.”
PROPAGANDA CLAIMS NO FAMINE, SAYS EARLIER REPORTS WERE EXAGGERATED
The pro-Netanyahu media is playing a deadly game in portraying famine forecasts from this past spring as exaggerated, or just plain false. The blockade of humanitarian aid continues relentlessly, and our contacts report that people in northern Gaza are again on the brink of famine and starvation. The tactic, though, is to bring the population to its knees, exhausted and hungry, on the verge of widespread starvation, and then to ease the blockade the tiniest bit for a brief period, in order to then claim that forecasts are overblown. “Caloric management” has been used to lesser degree multiple times over the past 20 years to control the people of Gaza. But to the people of Gaza who are getting by — or not— on grasses, animal feed and carrots, it’s starvation for them and their children, slow and painful, and, rightly, a war crime.
HINTS OF A POSSIBLE CEASEFIRE
“Hints” is probably a hopelessly optimistic (delusional?) description of the prospects for an actual ceasefire. Netanyahu remains bound by a web of overlapping, largely personal interests consisting of:
— his own longstanding desire to demolish the Gazans and force their expulsion.
— his own desire to annex the West Bank, and continue to make life intolerable for Palestinians there, forcing their “voluntary departure.” (Settlers continue to rampage against West Bank Palestinians, with the visible support of the IDF and Israeli police.)
— his need to appease his equally Far-Right coalition members and their hard-core lobby, or risk breakup of his coalition.
— the need to keep the war going to avoid losing office and going to jail.
— and, to keep it going long enough for a second Trump presidency, in which all U.S. government restraints on his conduct of the war will abruptly cease, and the U.S. will continue to wield its UNSC veto and economic power to prevent international pressure on the Netanyahu government.
In that context, the prospect of, and perhaps actual initiation of, war with Lebanon is a crucial element of his survival strategy. In a war with the Palestinians, Netanyahu faces international opposition from much of the European Union, humanitarians, peace activists, pro-Palestinians and a huge range of groups that decry the Occupation.
The moment that a war begins with Hezbollah, that opposition will shrink to insignificance, as Netanyahu diverts attention from the Gaza War and the Occupation to what will instantly be termed the “existential war,” the war to destroy Israel, the war in which the U.S. — and everyone else — must unequivocally and unquestionably support Israel.
This is a tried and true tactic, as noted in earlier updates. In the 80s and 90s, it was the prospect of war with Syria that Israel cited as preventing it from engaging in negotiations with the Palestinians (but did not prevent from building settlements on seized Palestinian property.) In the 90s, it was Iraq and Hezbollah (the latter formed as a direct response to the 18-year Israeli military occupation of southern Lebanon). After the U.S. invasion of Iraq, it became Iran and Hezbollah.
And it’s worked every time, including, in my own experience, in 2002-03 when Ariel Sharon was threatening war over what amounted to a trickle of water. International pressure was on for negotiations with the Palestinians. The second Intifada was underway. 9/11 had happened and the U.S. was gearing up for its invasion of Iraq.
Meanwhile, in Lebanon, only recently freed from Israel’s invasion and 18-year military occupation of all of south Lebanon, authorities decided to build a small pumping station for a small village on the Hasbani River, one of three streams that eventually form the Jordan River. The residents (meaning, of course, the women) of the village had always gotten their water from the river in buckets. The new project would allow them to pump water to communal taps in the village.
Sharon declared that the not only the Jordan River, but all of its headwaters deep in Lebanon, were the sole property of Israel, and threatened another full-flown invasion unless the Lebanese cancelled the tiny pump station project. U.S. diplomats worked furiously for months to appease Sharon and try to keep the region calm as we prepared to invade Iraq (based partly on fraudulent intelligence provided by Israel).
In the end, as I recall, the U.S. worked out an aid project to instead build a pumping station on the Litani River, which flows entirely within Lebanon and exits into the Mediterranean near Tyre, that would pump water over the mountains to the village on the Hasbani.
In any event, Sharon’s threat of a war served its purpose, and the combination of the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the Bush administration’s disdain for Palestinians ended the pressure on Sharon and, later, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
AP: Israel weighs Hamas’ latest response to Gaza cease-fire proposal as diplomatic efforts are revived
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-07-04-2024-c4f97c1ebfb2d8941f58c4651d4776e6
MOSQUE BOMBING IN ZEITOUN
Video of the aftermath of an IDF bombing of a mosque in Zeitoun (Zaytoun), the home neighborhood of Moataz, and where he is now.
PHOTOS OF EVACUATING KHAN YOUNIS HOSPITAL UNDER IDF ORDERS
NO SAFE ZONES, ANYWHERE
https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-gaza-evacuation-safe-zone-43536b7dfe84aa3c39668c30032bdfcb
THE LARGEST ISRAELI LAND SEIZURE IN 31 YEARS — SINCE OSLO; PLUS, 6,000 NEW SETTLER HOMES APPROVED; MORE THAN 1,000 SETTLER ATTACKS AGAINST WEST BANK PALESTINIANS SINCE OCTOBER
Note: Israeli Finance Minister Bezelal Smotrich strikes again, but it would be wrong to place on him sole responsibility for these seizures. Netanyahu has been an ardent, but more importantly, a clever proponent of creating facts on the ground for more than 35 years. In that time, he has successfully portrayed himself to naive and spineless American administrations as a centrist who has been forced time and time again to form coalition governments with Far-Rightists, but remains committed to a two-state solution. The truth has been obvious since his very first term as prime minister, in 1996. Today, Netanyahu has the Cabinet and the government of his dreams. The mask has fallen, but the United States continues to support a government operating diametrically opposed to stated, decades-long U.S. policy and, more importantly, U.S. national security interests.
This is an excellent article for its succinct background to conditions in the West Bank.
https://apnews.com/article/israel-palestinians-hamas-war-news-07-03-2024-033deab379a16efdf9989de8d6eaf0f8
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