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So-called Israeli parliament (Knesset) passes resolution opposing Palestinian statehood

Thursday 18-July-2024

NAZARETH, (PIC)

The so-called Israeli occupation apartheid regime parliament (Knesset) voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution rejecting the establishment of a Palestinian state on Wednesday (which means the continuation of the Israel occupation of Palestine, through the continuation of genocidal war on the Palestinian people).

The resolution garnered support from 68 Knesset members, including those from Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party. Nine Knesset members from Arab parties opposed the proposal, and members of the Labor Party abstained from voting.

The resolution states that the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heart of Israel would constitute an existential threat to it and its citizens, perpetuate the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and destabilize the region.

The resolution described the establishment of a Palestinian state following the events of October 7, 2023 as a reward for terrorism.

The motion was passed just days before Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s visit to the US to address a joint session of the Congress and meet with president Joe Biden at the White House.

Last May, the UN General Assembly adopted – with a majority of 143 votes in favor, 9 against and 25 abstentions – a resolution supporting Palestine’s application for full UN membership, and recommending that the Security Council reconsider the application.

The resolution also identified ways to implement additional rights and privileges related to Palestine’s participation in the UN, and affirmed the General Assembly’s conviction that the State of Palestine is fully qualified for membership in the international organization in accordance with its Charter, and indicates widespread support from member states for accepting Palestine as a member.

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ICRC: Health facilities in the southern Gaza Strip at breaking point

GAZA, Thursday, July 18 2024 (WAFA) –

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) today said that all health facilities in the southern Gaza Strip have reached the breaking point due to the ongoing Israeli occupation onslaught.

Director of the International Committee of the Red Cross's sub-delegation in Gaza, William Schomburg, affirmed that the large number of casualties led to the ICRC's hospital and all health facilities in southern Gaza reaching the breaking point and being unable to treat those suffering from life-threatening injuries.

The organization indicated that its field hospital includes 60 beds in Rafa'h in the southern Gaza Strip.

Schomburg pointed out that the occupation army's bombing of the Al-Mawasi area last Saturday led to the arrival of 26 wounded people to the facility, including children who were injured by shrapnel.

The committee stressed that any other aggression that causes such a large number of casualties will force doctors and nurses to make very difficult choices, explaining that the current medical needs of civilians far exceed the limited capabilities available,.

For his part, Dr. Pankaj Galdial said, "It is unimaginable how many patients needed resuscitation after the influx of injured people on Saturday, in addition to the 26 wounded who were transferred from Al-Mawasi to the Red Cross field hospital to receive treatment.

"The facility received an additional 850 people in its outpatient department last week, about half of whom were women and a third of whom were children," Schomburg

The organization confirmed that most of the patients have been displaced from their homes several times and live with limited amounts of food and drinking water in crowded areas, which makes them more vulnerable to contracting diseases.

Schomburg affirmed that since the opening of the facility in May, its team has provided 12,000 medical consultations and more than 500 surgical operations.

Y.S. 

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The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza appeals for providing hospitals with generators

Wednesday 17-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

The Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza issued a desperate appeal on Wednesday for providing the remaining hospitals with electric generators to help salvage the ailing health care system in the besieged and warn-torn enclave.

In a statement, the ministry stressed the urgent need to purchase essential generators to ensure hospitals can continue functioning.

“However, many of these generators have suffered significant technical failures, making repairs difficult. Some have even been directly targeted and destroyed by the aggressive Israeli forces,” the ministry added.

The ministry warned that several key generators are expected to stop operating soon because necessary spare parts for preventive and regular maintenance are not being allowed in.

“This impending crisis threatens the lives of patients and exacerbates the already strained healthcare services,” it said.

In a related context, Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has called for urgent international assistance to restart hospitals in the Gaza Strip.

In a statement on Wednesday, MSF said that the health system in Gaza lacks the most basic equipment and supplies in the midst of daily casualties and exhausted medical teams working under great pressure.

MSF affirmed that “with every attack, medical teams in Gaza are put under unbearable pressure in a health system that is already stretched to its limits.”

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'Hamas calls HRW’s last report “unprofessional” and “full of lies”

Wednesday 17-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

The 'Hamas Movement has called on Human Rights Watch (HRW) to withdraw its latest report on the Gaza Strip, saying it “lacks professionalism and credibility and is full of lies and blatantly biased in favor of the Israeli occupation state.”

In a statement on Wednesday, Hamas strongly denounced the fact that an institution that defends human rights had made such a mistake, stressing that “the last HRW report repeats the lies that were made by the Israeli army and its media machine at the beginning of the events to justify its crimes against out people.”

'Hamas accused HRW of adopting in its report the entire Israeli narrative and deviating from the scientific research methodology and the neutral legal position, adding that its report became more like an “Israeli propaganda document.”

'Hamas affirmed that the HRW report did not talk about the Gaza people’s exposure to killing, destruction, starvation and suffering that goes beyond imagination.

'Hamas also said that the report did not mention the number of the martyrs and wounded people that exceeded 120,000 within 285 days and the complete destruction of hospitals, universities, schools and infrastructure, “while the Israeli occupation’s killing machine persists in its crimes with full US and Western support.”

“The Palestinian people have the right to resist the occupation, the root of all evil, with all means and in accordance with what is enshrined in divine laws and international conventions,” 'Hamas stressed, adding that HRW ignored what the Palestinians in Gaza had suffered from repeated wars, killing, torture and siege before October 7, 2023.

“The [HRW] report has ignored on purpose the crimes that were committed by the Nazi occupation army on October 7 against our people in Gaza, and even against Israeli civilians who were bombed along with Palestinian fighters by warplanes and tank projectiles,” Hamas said.

“This international organization’s report has confirmed its inhuman bias when talking about Israeli prisoners who are being held by the Palestinian resistance and the need to release them immediately, without demanding the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners, men, women and children [from Israeli jails],” Hamas added.

The 'Hamas Movement has held HRW fully responsible for what was mentioned in its report that justified Israel’s crimes, stressing that the report damaged HRW’s image. 

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Guterres: The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a moral stain on us all

Wednesday 17-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres reiterated his demand on Wednesday for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip because the humanitarian situation in the Palestinian enclave is “a moral stain on us all.”

Guterres said in a statement read by his chief of staff, Courtenay Rattray, that there is an urgent need for an immediate humanitarian cease-fire.

It was read at a meeting concerning the Middle East that was chaired by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Guterres noted that talks with Egypt, Qatar and the US to reach a deal to get a cease-fire are continuing with some reported progress.

“The parties must reach such a deal now. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is a moral stain on us all,” said the UN chief.

He warned that the humanitarian support system in Gaza is close to collapse and there is a complete breakdown of public order.

Turning to the West Bank, the UN chief said that the territory and Jerusalem face perilous conditions.

He also urged an end to the conflict and a solution to end Israeli occupation.

“And this terrible war must end,” said Guterres.

“We must refocus on finding a political solution that will end the occupation and resolve the conflict in line with international law, and relevant United Nations resolutions.” 

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UNICEF: 90% of people in Gaza have been displaced to places that lack basic necessities and safety

Thursday 18-July-2024

NEW YORK, (PIC)

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) said on Wednesday that “90 percent of people in the Gaza Strip have been displaced since October 2023. Many of them are children.”

The UN organization added in a post on X, that “the places where people are being forced to move to lack basic necessities and safety.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the Commissioner of the Relief and Works Agency for the Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) Philippe Lazzarini said that “Israel has bombed at least eight schools in Gaza, six of which are affiliated with the agency.”

By July 17, 2024, and since October 2023, the Israeli occupation army has been waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, with US and European support, leading to the killing of 38,794 people and wounding 89,364 others, in addition to the displacement of about 1.9 million people from the Strip, according to UN data. 

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PGMO: Hundreds of injured Palestinians in Gaza martyred due to the Israeli occupation forces closure of the Rafa'h crossing

Wednesday 17-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

At least 292 Palestinians were martyred due to the Israeli occupation forces closure of the Rafa'h crossing in the southern Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Government Media Office (PGMO) in Gaza said on Wednesday.

“Among the victims were injured people who were supposed to receive treatment in hospitals outside Gaza, but martyred as they waited for the opening of the Rafa'h crossing,” the office added.

The PGMO estimated that more than 3,500 patients and injured people have been denied exit via the crossing since Israel’s capture of the terminal last May.

Around 2,500 patients have also applied to leave Gaza via the Rafa'h crossing for medical attention abroad.

“Israel’s closure of the crossing prevents these people from traveling for treatment, which leaves them at risk of death,” the media office warned.

On May 7, Israeli forces captured the Palestinian side of the Rafa'h crossing on Egypt’s border, a vital route to humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, exacerbating the already bad humanitarian conditions in the enclave. 

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'Hamas calls on the international community to break their silence and take urgent steps to stop the brutal war of genocide in the Gaza Strip.

Thursday 18-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

The 'Hamas Movement said on Wednesday that the continued brutal Israeli targeting of defenseless civilians taking refuge in schools and displacement centers is a dangerous escalation and horrific violation of international law.

The Israeli airstrike targeting a group of people in front of the Cairo School in the Al-Rimal neighborhood, west of Gaza City, which houses hundreds of displaced people, came as part of the Israeli genocide war on the Gaza Strip, the Movement said.

The Cairo School attack left 11 people killed and dozens more injured, including women and children.

'Hamas called on the international community and UN institutions to break their silence and take urgent steps to stop the ongoing Israeli violations of all humanitarian laws and rules, and to end the brutal war of genocide against innocent civilians in the Gaza Strip.

It further called for “the terrorist occupation leaders to be brought to trial as war criminals.” 

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IOAR confiscates 40,000 dunums in the West Bank over the past six months

Wednesday 17-July-2024

WEST BANK, (PIC)

Institutions concerned with settlement affairs said that the Israeli occupation apartheid regime (IOAR) has seized since the beginning of the current year about 40,000 dunums (10,000 acres) of Palestinian lands in the West Bank.

The institutions explained, during a press conference on Wednesday, that 24,000 dunums of the lands that the IOAR seized, it had declared state lands, in the largest land seizure operation under this pretext in more than 30 years.

They pointed out that the IOAR has systematically targeted nature reserves and seized more than 15,000 dunums in the context of expropriating and seizing those land reserves. It established 20 new settlement outposts, and submitted for study more than 19,000 new settlement units, and converted 11 outposts into a settlement, and granted new powers to intensify demolition operations in Areas B and C.

The IOAR displaced 26 Bedouin communities and carried out more than 1,300 attacks and 23 arson attacks in villages and towns, and it also submitted to the Knesset a set of racist laws aimed at controlling the Jordan Valley, the south of the West Bank, and the archaeological sites, and to return colonization to the north of the West Bank.

The IOAR no longer targets only Area C, but the measures have expanded to include Area B, and it is seeking to systematically besiege Palestinian construction and natural growth.

Demolition operations increased by 43% compared to the year 2023

The director of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) Center for Legal Aid and Human Rights, 'Isam Al-'Arouri, said that the forced displacement process in the West Bank takes 4 forms: first, the direct terrorism of the occupation soldiers and settlers; second, the tightening of livelihoods, confiscation of means of subsistence, and preventing workers from working and restricting their access; third, the direct displacement through demolition operations and the desecration of Palestinian areas; and fourth, the system of checkpoints that controls all aspects of movement in the occupied Palestinian territories.

He added that the unprecedented campaign of demolishing homes, agricultural and commercial facilities, with new features indicating a qualitative change, not just quantitative, in the crimes of demolition.

Al-'Arouri pointed out that the Palestinian territories have witnessed a serious increase in demolition operations throughout the West Bank, including Jerusalem, since the outbreak of the aggression on the Gaza Strip in October last year, which indicates the escalating trends to use the occupying power’s planning tool to besiege the Palestinian presence.

He noted that the year 2023 was the worst in about 30 years, while the first half of 2024 witnessed a 43% increase in demolition crimes compared to 2023 and 65% compared to 2022.

Al-'Arouri said that the rates of land seizure and expropriation for the benefit of the colonial project have risen to unprecedented levels in more than three decades in a new wave that actually indicates the desire of the occupation state to tear up the Palestinian geography and eliminate the possibility of a future Palestinian state.

He explained that the IOA practices constitute a serious violation of international law and international humanitarian law, especially the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians, which prohibits the forced transfer of populations, as well as the confiscation or destruction of property, including infrastructure, housing and livelihoods, which makes the IOA practices fall within the framework of war crimes that fall under the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court.

Al-Arouri called for the continued pursuit of Israeli war criminals and for the International Criminal Court to open an investigation into the crimes committed against the Palestinian people.

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Spread of diseases and epidemics among the Gaza displaced population, due to the Israeli ban on cleaning supplies

What does the Israeli ban on cleaning supplies mean for the Gaza?

Thursday 18-July-2024

GAZA, (PIC)

After more than nine months of the Israeli genocidal war, Palestinians in Gaza face numerous forms of suffering that extend beyond killing, displacement, and starvation.

In their daily lives, which have been turned upside down, challenges and problems accumulate, making it increasingly difficult to live in the tents of displacement that have become the hallmark of the current Palestinian catastrophe.

Since the start of the Israeli genocidal war on Gaza 286 days ago, the Israeli occupation forces have deprived Gaza residents of many basic necessities, food, and various essential items for their daily lives.

Ban on cleaning supplies The crisis of unavailable cleaning supplies is one of many problems troubling Palestinians, who are accustomed to high levels of personal and household cleanliness. This crisis has opened the door to serious health repercussions.

For weeks, the Israeli occupation forces have prevented the entry of all types of cleaning materials into Gaza, aiming to spread diseases among the population who are already suffering from numerous epidemics and diseases due to repeated displacement, overcrowding, and water shortages.

After hours of wandering through Dair El-Bala'h market, the largest market in Gaza currently, as the city has become a refuge for hundreds of thousands of residents and displaced people, citizen Su'ad Abu 'Atiya’s attempts to find soap or shampoo were unsuccessful.

Su'ad Abu 'Atiya told the Palestinian Information Center (PIC) correspondent that she has been searching for days for shampoo or even soap for washing, but to no avail. Nearly everything in the market has run out, worsening the overall cleanliness situation, which has already deteriorated due to water shortages and the accumulation of waste while living in tents.

She pointed out that the water shortage makes the need for cleaning supplies even greater, especially given the necessity of communal living in tents, shelters, and shared bathrooms.

She confirms that the lack of cleaning supplies and water has led to the spread of many diseases and epidemics.

As a result of the occupation’s bombing of tens of thousands of homes, coupled with Israeli displacement orders, hundreds of thousands of Palestinians live in tattered tents set up in empty spaces in Dair El-Bala'h and Al-Mawasi Khan Younus, in UNRWA schools, and in universities that have been turned into shelters, with each classroom now housing several families.

Hundreds of displaced people are forced to use shared bathrooms amid a near-total lack of cleanliness and health standards.

The PIC correspondent observed that the Dair El-Bala'h market is completely devoid of all types of cleaning supplies.

According to traders, the Israeli occupation army has been preventing the entry of cleaning supplies into Gaza for a long time, leading to their depletion from the markets.

Alternatives Citizen Mu'adth Al-'Halabi from Khan Younus, who lives in a tent, told the PIC correspondent that he has resorted to using alternatives, such as washing cooking utensils with sand.

He added that he and his children bathe infrequently using only water, without any shampoo or soap.

He wonders about the reasons, but there are no answers other than the Israeli determination to exterminate Palestinians on all fronts.

Diseases and risks Citizen Maryam Shurrab explained that the lack of cleaning supplies is a real problem because they live in an unclean environment. The tents are set up on sand, the temperature inside the tents is high, causing sweating, and the surroundings are unclean due to the inability to remove waste, coupled with water shortages.

Shurrab told the PIC that this situation has led to the reappearance of diseases that had been eradicated, pointing to the spread of scabies and head lice, which, if previously present in some children, are now widespread among everyone.

According to the Government Media Office, more than 1.7 million displaced people in Gaza have suffered from infectious diseases due to displacement.

UN and health reports in Gaza confirm that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians suffer from various skin diseases due to the lack of personal hygiene, water shortages, and the absence of cleaning supplies.

UNRWA noted in a post on X that waste is accumulating across Gaza, with mosquitoes, flies, and rats spreading diseases and epidemics. The lack of proper sanitation worsens the situation.

Dermatology and cosmetic consultant Nazeer Abu Ra'hma confirms that the shortage of cleaning supplies has caused a major crisis, particularly affecting women, with the spread of eczema and hand allergies due to the unsafe use of locally manufactured cleaning agents with unknown compositions.

Abu Ra'hma stated in press remarks that lice and nits have noticeably spread recently due to water shortages and the difficulty of bathing in shelters, as well as the spread of fungi due to intense heat and high humidity inside the tents.

The ban on the entry of cleaning supplies to Gaza has also impacted the already exhausted and destroyed health sector. Our correspondent observed firsthand at Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and other hospitals that there are no cleaning agents or disinfectants in the various wards, affecting the spread of infections and diseases.

Rationing usage Many citizens have resorted to rationing the use of the cleaning supplies they have to extend their duration, while others have shredded soap bars and mixed them with water to create a liquid for use as shampoo and cleaning fluid.

Local workers in the cleaning supplies industry point out that the lack of raw materials prevents local manufacturing in sufficient quantities.

Gaza residents continue to search for cleaning alternatives, using sand, leaves, and lemon if available, to face the difficult challenges they are enduring.

Legal experts emphasize that Israel’s periodic ban on the entry of cleaning supplies, like many other goods, has no justification and is part of the crime of genocide, aimed at destroying all aspects of Palestinian life and depriving them of the necessary essentials for a dignified life.

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