The Latest:
- Gaza death toll reaches 197 (and counting), including 58 children and 1,225 injuries, according to Gaza’s Ministry of Health; 10 Israeli casualties, including one child. 24 schools have been destroyed in Gaza.
- Today was the deadliest day of Israeli attacks on Gaza. Two airstrikes killed at least 43 Palestinians, among them 8 children, this morning, according to the Ministry of Health.
- Israel shells residential neighborhood close to al-Shifa hospital overnight; two doctors among the dead; first responders still pulling people out of the rubble.
- US President Joe Biden reaffirms “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself” in phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
- Palestinian Ministry of Health reports 21 deaths as a result of Israeli aggression in the West Bank since May 7th
- The UN Security Council is meeting this morning in an emergency session. UN Sec’y General Antonio Guterres called for an immediate ceasefire. “Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki said, ‘Every time Israel hears a foreign leader say it has a right to self-defense it only encourages it to kill entire families in their sleep. Israel kills families in Gaza one by one. Israel expels Palestinians from Jerusalem – each time a different family. Israel commits war crimes,'” reports Barak Ravid at Axios.
- U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is reported to have called Israeli foreign minister Benny Gantz and expressed concern about the targeting of civilians in Gaza.
-updated 1:30 pm GMT
Israeli forces kill Palestinian man in Sheikh Jarrah
Israeli forces shot and killed a Palestinian man after his vehicle rammed into a group of Israeli border police at a police barrier outside the neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah in occupied East Jerusalem.
Wafa, the official Palestinian Authority news agency, reported that the man was identified as 41-year-old Shaher Abu Khadija, and added that Israeli police “deployed heavily in the area following the shooting and closed off the area and prevented medical teams’ access to the man.”
It remained unclear how many border police officers were injured.
A video posted on social media by Sheikh Jarrah resident Mohammed el-Kurd shows an Israeli officer pointing his gun towards someone, allegedly press, filming the scene after the incident.
El-Kurd wrote, in response to the incident, that “we expect increased police brutality & isolation from the city as the blockade of the neighborhood continues.”
Israeli police forces have been blocking the entrances to Sheikh Jarrah for more than a week now, preventing the entry of press and Palestinians who are not residents of the neighborhood.
The police have also been documented as forcibly removing Palestinian residents of the neighborhood, including Mohammed and his sister Muna, while allowing the entry of armed settlers into the neighborhood and allowing them to roam the streets.
El-Kurd also wrote on Sunday, in response to the killing of Abu Khadija, that “while settler can drive into a crowd of Palestinians [and] have full backing and support of police, Palestinians are killed extrajudicially,” referring to an incident last week when an Israeli settler rammed his vehicle into a crowd of Palestinians outside Jerusalem’s Old City and was immediately protected by an armed police officer who pointed his guns at Palestinians.
Reports of an Israeli settler shooting at Palestinians in the Shufat area in Jerusalem also surfaced early Sunday evening, with the IMEU reporting that at least two Palestinians were injured. Video footage showed an armed Israeli settler patrolling a major street and pointing his guns at vehicles passing by.
-updated 7:30 pm GMT
AP top editor calls for investigation into Israeli attack on Gaza office
From the Associated Press:
The Associated Press’ top editor on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, saying the public deserves to know the facts.
Sally Buzbee, AP’s executive editor, said the Israeli government has yet to provide clear evidence supporting its attack, which leveled the 12-story al-Jalaa tower. . .
Buzbee said the AP has had offices in al-Jalaa tower for 15 years and never was informed or had any indication that Hamas might be in the building. She said the facts must be laid out.
“We are in a conflict situation,” Buzbee said. “We do not take sides in that conflict. We heard Israelis say they have evidence; we don’t know what that evidence is.”
-updated 6:30 pm GMT
President Biden calls Netanyahu, reaffirms “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself”
US President Joe Biden called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday, May 15th to reaffirm the US’ “strong support for Israel’s right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Hamas and other terrorist groups in Gaza.”
Biden condemned the “indiscriminate attacks against towns and cities across Israel,” but made no mention of Israel’s bombing of civilians and the killing of dozens of children in Gaza.
While Biden “raised concerns about the safety and security of journalists and reinforced the need to ensure their protection,” he did not express ecpicit condemnation over Israel’s bombing of the al-Jalaa building in Gaza, which houses most of the territory’s foreign press offices, including Al Jazeera and the AP.
According to a statement from the White House, Biden welcomed statements from Netanyahu calling for an end to “intercommunal violence” accross Israel. Biden did not acknowledge dozens of accounts and video evidence of Israeli police engaging in violence against Palestinian communties in Israel.
The statement said the two “discussed the current tensions in Jerusalem and expressed their shared desire for Jerusalem to be a place of peaceful coexistence for people of all faiths and backgrounds.”
There was no mention of any condemnation of the state’s support of the ongoing efforts of Israeli settler orgnizations to forcibly expell Palesitnian families in Sheikh Jarrah from their homes, or the evidence of police brutality against peaceful Palesitnian protesters in the Jerusalem neighborhood.
“He [Biden] expressed his support for steps to enable the Palestinian people to enjoy the dignity, security, freedom, and economic opportunity that they deserve and affirmed his support for a two-state solution. The leaders agreed to continue the close consultation between their teams and to remain in touch in the days ahead,” the statement said.
-updated 2:16 pm GMT
Israel shells Gaza City neighborhood, killing dozens, mostly children
Israeli forces conducted heavy airstrikes on Gaza in the early morning hours of Sunday, primarily targeting civilian homes and residential buildings on the al-Wehda street in Gaza City, killing 33 people, though that number is expected to rise.
According to Al Jazeera, Israeli forces fired more than 150 rockets into Gaza overnight, around 2am, with at least half of those targeting the al-Wehda district, which is located near the al-Shifa Hospital, the main hospital in the besieged territory.
Locals in Gaza reported that in addition to targeting homes, the airstrikes targeted the actual roads leading to al-Shifa Hospital, causing significant damage that was affecting the ability of paramedics to access the neighborhood, and the ability of the injured to access the hospital.
The Ministry of Health in Gaza reported that, as of 11:02am GMT, the death toll from the night’s airstrikes had risen to 33 people, including eight children and 12 women. Another 50 were wounded, mostly women and children.
The MOH said that its emergency response teams were still working to extract people who were trapped under the rubble, and that the death toll is expected to rise as the day goes on.
“We can still hear people shouting from under the rubble,” Medhat Hamdan, a civil defense worker in Gaza, who had reportedly been working nonstop for 11 hours to save lives, told Al Jazeera.
With Sunday morning’s airstrikes, the number of children killed in Gaza by Israeli forces in the span of a week reached 52.
The Palestinian MOH said that at least two doctors, a neuorologist and an internal medicine doctor, had also been killed in the airstrikes. They were identified as Dr. Mu’in Ahmad al-Aloul, and Dr. Ayman Abu al-Awf.
Reports on social media said that Dr. al-Aloul, one of the only neurologists in the Gaza Strip, also lost five of his children in the airstrike. Mondoweiss could not independently confirm these reports.
Minister of Health Mai al-Kaila said in a statement: “This aggression must stop. The whole world must protect hospitals, medical and health centers that Israel is attacking at every moment,” along with a photo of Dr. Abu al-Awf’s colleagues praying over his body before his funeral.
Previous Reports:
- Live blog: Israeli airstrikes target international media offices, civilian homes in Gaza (May 15, 2021)
- Live blog: U.S. blocks UN Security Council statement on conflict, and 8 Palestinians reported dead in West Bank protests (May 14, 2021)
- Live blog: Israel threatening ground invasion in Gaza, mobilizes army to police Palestinian citizens (May 13, 2021)
- Live blog: Israel kills two Palestinians in West Bank raids, Gaza death toll rises as airstrikes continue (May 12, 2021)
- Live blog: Israel levels apartment buildings, dozens dead in Gaza as Netanyahu government vows to step up strikes (May 11, 2021)
- Israel kills 20 Palestinians in Gaza, injures hundreds in Jerusalem as Al-Aqsa tensions flare (May 10, 2021)
- Hundreds injured as Israeli forces attack Palestinian worshipers in Jerusalem (May 8, 2021)
I just got my copy of Haim Bresheeth-Zabners book “An Army Like No Other – How The Israel Defense Forces Made A Nation” and, as is my habit, I read the last paragraph in the book. It seems appropriate:
I hope this monograph serves as a clear warning. Such admonitions now abound-unfortunately without evidence that they are being heeded or that Israel’s political, military, and financial supporters are seriously reconsidering their misguided and unjustified stance. The explosion that appears to be coming is not necessarily in the interest of the West, yet it may take place if nothing is done to stay the strongest military machine in the Middle East, one that is ready and waiting to inflict decisive blows within the region as it has done in the past. With Israeli society more inclined than ever to inflict lethal damage on the Palestinians and their aspirations for freedom and equality , denial of the potential for regional disaster is no longer an option.
Never forget that Israel boasts that it has complete control over what it destroys. These are not accidents.
Only the lives of Jewish children have worth…Palestinian children…so what.
In Gaza the children have no hope at all
When “Israel” is bombing every day.
They bomb babes in their cot, you protest you’ll be shot.
That’s the inhumane “Israeli” way.
They’re bombing the school. Kids are terrified – who’ll
Be next to be headless or legless? “Oh, it’s cool,”
Says the US of A – “We make our taxpayers pay
For the massacre of children there.
If a thousand should die, US government won’t cry.
They’re just Arab kids! Why should we care?
The world is haywire, it’s only for Whites.
The White Occupier of Palestine has rights.
Palestinians do not; they are bombed, robbed, or shot,
Which is fine by Biden’s USA.
While in Zionist Britain the high-ups are smitten
With “Israel” blowing kids away.
Tiny tots are dying, hip-hip-hooray,
Because Palestine has got to pay
For resisting Occupation. They
Have to understand it’s now the Whites
In their motherland who’ve got the rights.
Jews can shoot or bomb them, that’s okay.
While the blood of children pools, oi vey!
And the kids in Gaza schools all say,
“It is MIGHT not RIGHT that rules today.”