Daily Sabah – June 21, 2024
Intensified Israeli assault grips Gaza's Rafah amid intense combat
Israeli forces heavily bombed Rafah and other areas across the Gaza Strip and engaged in close-quarter combat with Hamas members, according to residents and Israel's military.
Residents reported that the Israelis seemed to be trying to complete their capture of Rafah, the city on the enclave's southern edge that has been the focus of an Israeli assault since early May.
Tanks were seen advancing into the western and northern parts of the city after already seizing control of the east, south and center.
Israeli forces conducted airstrikes from planes, tanks and ships off the coast, leading to a new wave of displacement from the city.
Rafah had been providing shelter to over a million displaced people, most of whom have now been forced to flee again.
The Israeli military said on Friday its forces were conducting "precise, intelligence-based" actions in the Rafah area, where troops were involved in close-quarter combat and had located tunnels allegedly used by Hamas members.
It also reported actions elsewhere in the enclave.
Some residents said the pace of the Israeli raid has accelerated in the past two days.
They said sounds of explosions and gunfire, indicating fierce fighting, have been almost non-stop.
More than eight months into the war in Gaza, Israel's advance is now focused on the two last areas its forces had yet to storm: Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the area surrounding Deir al-Balah in the center.
"The entire city of Rafah is an area of Israeli military operations," Ahmed Al-Sofi, the mayor of Rafah, said in a statement carried by Hamas media on Friday.
"The city lives through a humanitarian catastrophe and people are dying inside their tents because of Israeli bombardment," he added.
Sofi said there was no medical facility functioning in the city, and that remaining residents and displaced families lacked the minimum of their daily needs of food and water.
Palestinian and United Nations (U.N.) figures show that fewer than 100,000 people may have remained in the far western side of the city, which had been sheltering more than half of Gaza's 2.3 million people before the Israeli assault began in early May.
The military accused Hamas of using Palestinian civilians as human shields, an allegation Hamas denies.
"The soldiers are located inside a civilian residence with large quantities of weapons hidden in wardrobes, including grenades, explosives, a launcher and anti-tank missiles, ammunition and arms," the military said in a statement late on Thursday.
Hamas' armed wing, Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said on Thursday its members had hit two Israeli tanks with anti-tank rockets in the Shaboura camp in Rafah and killed soldiers who tried to flee through the alleys.
There was no Israeli immediate comment on the Hamas claim.
In nearby Khan Younis, an Israeli air strike on Friday killed three people, including a father and son, medics said.
In parallel, Israeli forces continued a new pushback into some Gaza City suburbs in the north of the enclave.
Residents said the army forces had destroyed many homes in the heart of Gaza City on Thursday.
Later on Friday, an Israeli air strike on a main road in Gaza City killed four Palestinians, medics said.
Israel's ground and air campaign was triggered when Hamas stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and seizing more than 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
The offensive has left Gaza in ruins, killed more than 37,400 people, according to Palestinian health authorities, and left nearly the entire population homeless and destitute.
https://www.dailysabah.com/world/mid-east/intensified-israeli-assault-grips-gazas-rafah-amid-intense-combat
‘Operation al-Aqsa Flood’ Day 258:
Threat of all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah rises
Hassan Nasrallah warned in a televised speech that Hezbollah would “fight without restraints and without limits” in the event of an all-out war. Meanwhile, the first lawyer to visit Gaza detainees in Sde Teiman said they face “unimaginable” abuse.
By Qassam Muaddi
Casualties
- 37,431 + killed* and at least 85,653 wounded in the Gaza Strip.*
- 544+ Palestinians killed in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.**
- Israel revised its estimated October 7 death toll down from 1,400 to 1,140.
- 662 Israeli soldiers have been killed since October 7, and at least 3,860 have been wounded.***
- * Gaza’s Ministry of Health confirmed this figure on its Telegram channel on June 20, 2024. Some rights groups estimate the death toll to be much higher when accounting for those presumed dead.
** The death toll in the West Bank and Jerusalem is not updated regularly. According to the PA’s Ministry of Health on June 13, this is the latest figure.
*** These figures are released by the Israeli military, showing the soldiers whose names “were allowed to be published.” The number of Israeli soldiers wounded, according to declarations by the head of the Israeli army’s wounded association to Israel’s Channel 12, exceeds 20,000, including at least 8,000 permanently handicapped as of June 1. Israel’s Channel 7 reported that according to the Israeli war ministry’s rehabilitation service numbers, 8,663 new wounded joined the army’s handicap rehabilitation system since October 7, as of June 18.
Key Developments
- Israel kills 84 Palestinians, wounds 281 since Thursday, June 13, across Gaza, raising death toll since October 7 to 37,431 and number of wounded to 85,653, according to the Gaza health ministry.
- Fears of all-out war rise as Hezbollah and Israel exchange threats.
- Hezbollah releases 10-minute-long drone footage of Israeli strategic facilities in threat to Israel.
- Washington says that war between Israel and Hezbollah will have devastating consequences.
- Israel bombs south Lebanese towns as Hezbollah mourns one of its fighters and launches dozens of rockets into northern Galilee.
- Israeli army spokesperson says Hamas impossible to destroy as an idea.
- UN Human Rights Council fact-finding mission for Palestine concludes that Israel committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza, including intentional killing of civilians, starvation, and collective punishment.
- First lawyer to visit Sde Teiman detention center and military base reports torture, sexual abuse, and “unimaginable” inhumane conditions.
- Gaza health ministry says 70% of bed capacity in Gaza medical facilities has been lost, with only 272 functioning patient beds for more than 85,000 wounded.
- Hezbollah and Israel exchange threats of all-out war, escalate cross-border attacks
CNN quoted from unnamed U.S. officials that Israel informed Washington of its intention of transferring “resources” to its northern border in preparation for a war against Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
According to reports, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told an Arab official that Israel seems determined to attack Lebanon, while the Arab official told Blinken that Hezbollah will not end its attacks on Israel unless it ends its war in Gaza.
Tensions rose after a week of unprecedented escalation between Hezbollah and Israel. Last week, Israel killed a senior Hezbollah commander in a strike on southern Lebanon. The Lebanese group responded with the largest rocket attack since October, launching over 250 rockets the northern Galilee in addition to dozens of drone attacks on Israeli positions. Hezbollah’s attacks caused widespread fires.
On Wednesday, Hezbollah’s secretary general Hassan Nasrallah said that his group was ready for a full-scale war with Israel “if a war is imposed on Lebanon.” Nasrallah’s remarks came in a speech marking a week since the killing of its field commander by Israeli strikes in the Lebanese south.
Nasrallah said that Hezbollah “will fight without restraints and without limits” if Israel attacks Lebanon, adding that Israel’s seaports and airports will be targeted.
Earlier on Monday, Hezbollah released 10-minute-long drone footage of strategic Israeli facilities in the Haifa region, including arms factories, power plants, warship docks, and oil reservoirs.
Hezbollah began to conduct cross-border attacks on Israeli positions across the border on October 8 as Israel began its assault on Gaza. Israel, for its part, began to carry out airstrikes on southern Lebanese towns, killing at least 500 Lebanese and forcing some 100,000 to flee the area. Meanwhile, Between 120,000 and 200,000 Israelis have fled the north since October.
Gaza detainees under ‘unimaginable’ abuse, says first lawyer to visit detention center
Palestinian lawyer Khaled Mahajneh from Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel said that Gazan detainees in Israeli detention centers are facing “unimaginable” conditions, including torture and sexual abuse. Mahajneh made his remarks after visiting the infamous Sde Teiman base in the Naqab desert, where Israel holds hundreds of Palestinian Gazans. Mahajneh is the first lawyer to be allowed to enter Sde Teiman.
Mahajneh, who visited his client, Palestinian Gaza journalist Muhammad Arab, said his client told him that Palestinian detainees have been beaten by Israeli soldiers and prison guards on a daily basis, several of whom have died as a result.
According to Mahajneh, Palestinian detainees in Sde Teiman have been forced to sleep on the bare ground in barracks containing up to 150 detainees each and beaten for taking more than one exact minute in the shower. Detainees have been handcuffed and blindfolded for hours on end and sexually abused, Mahajneh said.
In March, Israeli daily Haaretz reported that 27 Palestinians had died in two Israeli detention facilities, including Sde Teiman. In February, the UN experts said in a report that several Palestinians had been sexually abused in Israeli detention since October.
In mid-May, CNN released an exposé based on theﾠtestimonies of Israeli whistleblowers about the horrific treatment of Palestinians from Gaza at the Israeli military base of Sde Teiman, including being strapped down to beds while blindfolded and made to wear diapers, having unqualified medical trainees conduct procedures on them without anesthesia, having dogs set on them by prison guards, being regularly beaten or put into stress positions for offenses as minor as peeking beneath their blindfolds, having zip-tie wounds fester to the point of requiring amputation, among other practices.
On June 6, theﾠNew York Timesﾠpublished another story about Sde Teiman based on interviews with former detainees and Israeli military officers, doctors, and soldiers who worked at the prison, bringing new horrors to light about the treatment of Gazan prisoners there. Detainee testimonies repeated many of these same accounts but also included additional disturbing accounts of sexual violence, including testimonies of rape and forcing detainees to sit on metal sticks that caused anal bleeding and “unbearable pain.”
Following October 7, Israel began a crack-down on Palestinian detainees in all prisons, including suspending all family visits. Detainees from Gaza were separated from the rest of the prisoners.
According to the Gaza-based Palestinian Ministry of Prisoners and Detainees, at least 36 detainees from Gaza have died in Israeli detention since last October. Currently, Israel holds more than 9300 Palestinians in its jails, including 74 women, 250 children, and more than 3410 detainees without charges.
ANADOLU AGENCY – June 21, 2024
Israeli forces kill Palestinian journalist as media death toll soars
Israeli forces killed another journalist in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, bringing the total number of Palestinian media workers' deaths since Oct. 7, 2023, to 152.
The Government Media Office in Gaza identified the victim as Salim al-Sharafa, who worked as a presenter and journalist for local broadcaster Al-Aqsa TV. The statement, however, did not elaborate on how or where he was killed.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said the war in Gaza has become "the deadliest for journalists" since it began documenting journalist killings worldwide in 1992.
In February, the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ), a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization, said the war in Gaza has seen the highest levels of violence against journalists in 30 years.
Israel, flouting a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023, attack by the Palestinian group Hamas.
The Palestinian death toll from relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip since last October has reached 37,431, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave.
At least 85,653 people have also been injured in the onslaught, the ministry added.
Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine.
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), which in its latest ruling ordered it to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
36 prisoners tortured to death in Israeli jails since Oct. 7: Gaza Media Office
At least 36 Palestinian prisoners detained by Israeli forces since Oct. 7 have died as a result of torture and harsh conditions in Israeli prisons, the Gaza Media Office said on Thursday.
The Israeli army is believed to have detained thousands of Palestinians from Gaza, including women, children and medics, amid its deadly offensive on the enclave. Dozens of detainees freed by the Israeli army in recent weeks have described torture and mistreatment during interrogation while in custody.
The Israeli army released 33 Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, according to medical sources. “The freed detainees were admitted to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital with thin bodies and signs of torture,” the sources said.According to an Anadolu reporter, the detainees were set free east of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.Later in the day, the Palestinian resistance group Hamas issued "horrific testimonies of severe abuses" faced by Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails following the release of several Palestinian detainees from Gaza by Israeli authorities on Thursday.Hamas said in a statement, "The latest accounts come from several Palestinians from Gaza who were released on Thursday from the Sde Teiman detention center."This detention center is overcrowded with thousands of Palestinian detainees, forcibly taken by the (Israeli) occupation from the Gaza Strip." Flouting a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire, Israel has faced international condemnation amid its continued brutal offensive on Gaza since an Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Palestinian group Hamas.Nearly 37,400 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and more than 85,500 others injured, according to local health authorities.Over eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lie in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water and medicine.Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its military operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
Those expecting the world to return to its pre-October 7 state are mistaken
Selçuk Türkyılmaz
During World War II, Stalingrad was one of the most fiercely contested battlegrounds between the Germans and the Russians. The city endured a siege for approximately five months. Historical sources detail the significance of Stalingrad for both the German and Russian forces.
Strategically located on the banks of the Volga River, it was crucial for access to Azerbaijani oil. Originally known as Volgograd, Stalingrad was initially subjected to a full-force German offensive aimed at forcing its surrender. The German ground troops advanced slowly but steadily into the city, followed by relentless aerial bombardments intended to break the city's resistance.
While a comprehensive analysis of the military strategies employed is beyond this article's scope, it's clear that the Russians developed a highly effective defensive strategy, primarily focused on mitigating the impact of German air superiority.
After five months, the German forces were defeated. Hitler’s strategy of rapid advances proved ineffective in this battle, making Stalingrad a pivotal turning point in World War II. Similarly, Israel has consistently employed rapid maneuver tactics in its conflicts with both Palestinians and other Arab states.
Historical records show that during the British Mandate, Zionist groups used swift operations against Arabs, a tactic that continued from 1918 to 1948. These Zionist organizations conducted terror activities at an incredible pace, achieving short-term goals before shifting focus to propaganda efforts.
All these activities were overseen by the Middle Eastern Department of the British Colonial Office. The necessity to shape European public opinion meant that the swift actions of these Zionist groups were crucial for propaganda success. This speed played a vital role in maintaining Britain’s pro-Zionist policies. In contemporary discussions about Palestine, the longstanding "imperialist loyalty" of the West to Israel is a well-known fact, even if it is not always overtly highlighted.
The existence of Israel, often explained through Jewish theology and finance, does not fully account for the West’s "imperial loyalty" to the state. Western powers, notably Britain, France, Germany, and the U.S., have always been the primary actors behind the scenes in Palestine.
Zionist terror during the British Mandate and Israel’s post-1948 military strategies were both characterized by rapid actions. On one hand, these terror activities instilled fear among Palestinians, driving them from their lands. On the other hand, the narrative of Jewish life, rights, and victimhood was heavily promoted in Western public discourse to divert attention. Without the Colonial Office's consent in 1947, Palestine would not have been handed over to the Zionists. Israel’s repeated genocidal actions in Gaza are neither isolated incidents nor new. After October 7th, Zionist Israel launched yet another rapid assault on Gaza, reminiscent of Hitler’s military tactics.
According to Hamas spokesperson Abu Ubaida, the Zionist forces attacked Gaza from air, land, and sea with their usual swiftness. Had the Palestinian resistance been quickly subdued, Israel’s war crimes would likely have faded from memory over time, hidden by propaganda.
However, this time, the Palestinian resistance proved incredibly resilient, disrupting the usual narrative. Consequently, the system that had worked so far failed.
Israel and Zionism’s true nature, as well as the West’s imperial loyalty to Israel, became increasingly visible. The Western imperialism of the U.S., U.K., and Germany, among others, could no longer be concealed. The myth of European and Western superiority collapsed on the shores of Gaza. Expecting a return to the pre-October 7th world is unrealistic. We are now entering a new era, and recognizing this shift is crucial. This fundamental change necessitates new ideas and concepts.
https://www.yenisafak.com/en/columns/selcuk-turkyilmaz/those-expecting-the-world-to-return-to-its-pre-october-7-state-are-mistaken-3686195
World Socialist Web Site - June 21, 2024
Death toll from global heat wave climbs as 1,000 Hajis die from extreme heat in Mecca
By Alex Findijs
Deadly heat waves are affecting hundreds of millions of people around the world. For the past week, much of the Eastern United States has seen temperatures far higher than average for this time of year, with the heat index reaching over 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 degrees Celsius) in some places and the National Weather Service predicting major and extreme heat risk for tens of millions of people over the next week.
The US heat wave, the result of a “heat dome,” is predicted to shift from the Midwest and Northeast to the Southern and Southwest US by the middle of next week after having originated in Mexico at the beginning of June.
Excessive heat in Mexico has claimed the lives of at least 125 people this year, as the country is being hit with the first named tropical storm of the year, predicted to be one of the most active hurricane seasons in recorded history. The heat has been so intense that howler monkeys were reported to be falling dead out of their trees.
This past week has also seen intense heat in the Mediterranean region that took several lives. Multiple tourists, including British journalist Michael Mosley, have died from the heat in recent weeks, and Greek authorities were forced to shut down the Acropolis to tourists, close schools and station medics across Athens as temperatures soared to up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit (44.5 Celsius).
According to meteorologist Panos Giannopoulos, heat waves are occurring earlier in the year. Speaking to Greek TV channel ERT, he said, “We never had a heatwave before June 19. We have had several in the 21st century, but none before June 15.
Similar temperatures stuck Italy and Turkey. Temperatures in Italy reached above 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 Celsius), about 10 degrees Celsius above normal, according to Antonio Sanò, founder of the weather website ilmeteo.it.
Meanwhile, Turkey has seen temperatures 8-12 degrees Celsius above normal, with highs similar to Italy and Greece.
The research non-profit Climate Central estimates that the extreme heat has been made five times more likely to occur due to climate change, and the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization published a report earlier this year that found heatwave-related deaths have increased in Europe by 30 percent over the past 20 years.
India and Pakistan, as well as broader parts of Southeast Asia, have also suffered through deadly heat. For more than a month, India has seen temperatures in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit and the capital New Delhi, home to nearly 34 million people, recorded its highest night temperature in 55 years at 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35.2 Celsius). Adjusted for the heat index, temperatures at night are estimated to feel well above 100 degrees.
The extreme heat has claimed the lives of at least 100 people and caused heat stroke in 40,000 over the past three and a half months. These numbers are likely an undercount as heat-related deaths with illnesses are not often recorded properly. Dileep Mavalankar, former head of the Indian Institute of Public Health in Gandhinagar, told the Associated Press that, “We don’t classify and measure deaths as much as we should and that is one reason why heat-related deaths are difficult to count.”
Research by World Weather Attribution estimates that the beginning of the heat wave in April was 45 times more likely due to climate change, and India’s weather agency believes the heat wave is among the longest in the country’s history.
The most severe impacts of the global heat wave have been in Saudi Arabia, where an estimated 1,000 people have died from the searing heat during the Islamic Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca. The Hajj is one of the most important religious events in Islam, drawing millions of people every year on a pilgrimage to the Kaaba, the “House of Allah.” Temperatures in Mecca reached 125 degrees Fahrenheit (51.8 Celsius) this week.
This year the Saudi government issued 1.8 million permits for the Hajj, a procedure designed to control the number of pilgrims. However, many people who are unable to afford a permit go anyway. Saudi officials reported removing hundreds of thousands of unregistered pilgrims from Mecca earlier this month.
Without a permit, unregistered pilgrims are unable to access air-conditioned areas and other safety systems established for the high heat. On Thursday morning, CBS News reported that an Arab diplomat said 630 of 658 people who died were unregistered. As of this writing, 10 countries have confirmed a total of 1,081 deaths.
This year’s extreme heat can be partially ascribed to El Niño, the warm period of the El Niño Southern Oscillation, or ENSO, that occurs in the Pacific ocean.
ENSO fluctuates between the warm El Niño and the cool La Niña, as ocean convection currents bring warmer or cooler water to the surface. This fluctuation, between about half a degree Celsius either side of average, fuels global conditions for wetter, drier, cooler, or warmer climates around the world.
The current El Niño, which began last spring/summer, is one of the strongest on record and has been associated with severe droughts in Mexico, Colombia, South Africa and India.
But the El Niño event cannot be solely blamed for the current global heat waves. The underlying cause is climate change.
Data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows that average global temperatures have risen steadily since the 1950s, and that the extremes associated with ENSO have risen with them.
The climatic changes from ENSO are gaining more energy and impact from a warming climate that is altering its behavior. As the world warms, the impacts of ENSO will strengthen as well.
If the ENSO cycle is like a swing, climate change is like a person behind the swing pushing it towards more extreme events. La Niña is associated with stronger hurricane seasons and this year is predicted to be one of the most prolific in history. And while La Niña is a relative cooling event in the tropics, it can cause warmer temperatures in parts of North America and Asia.
The current heat wave comes as El Niño weakens and shifts into a La Niña cycle, bringing with it a relative cooling to the planet. But this will not offset the impacts of climate change.
The 2021 heat dome, which killed upwards of 1,600 people in Canada and the US, occurred in the middle of a three-year-long La Niña. That period saw some the worst natural disasters in recent years, with two of the most active hurricane seasons in US history, historic flooding in Australia, and severe heat waves and forest fires in Chile and Argentina.
As the earth continues to warm, such natural disasters will only increase in frequency and severity. The rising death toll from the current heat wave is a product of the warming climate and the failure of world governments to effectively combat climate change and provide adequate social services to those most at risk from extreme heat events.
https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2024/06/21/qstv-j21.html?pk_campaign=newsletter&pk_kwd=wsws
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The Journal of America Team:
Editor in chief:
Abdus Sattar Ghazali
Senior Editor:
Prof. Arthur Scott
Special Correspondent
Maryam Turab
