There are comments at the link above. I am sorry but I am too heart sick over the cruelty and inhumanity of one group of people to another. Jerry / Rawgod has been posting of the atrocities of the governments / religious groups that stole kids from their parents and abused them horribly to civilize them, He reported on the beating death of a black man whose family still fights for justice, on The Majority Report they just played a clip of Matt Walsh saying the colonization and killing of native populations was a good thing that white people should celebrate because they made everything better … for the white people, I have memories in my head of people who took enjoyment in hearing me cry both in sadness and crying out in pain. I can’t any more today. I am sorry I can’t. Religious people demanding the death and wiping from society of people like me, removing the protections for gay / lesbian / trans kids to return to a time when their lives in school were hell and fear. WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH HUMANS! Maybe it is time that humans move aside on the planet! We don’t deserve to be here. Hugs
They did this with Biden on the way! They are not using restraint and they don’t plan to. This is a war crime, just as when Russia did it. This has become a genocide! And if the US and Biden agree and sign on to this in any way, the stain is on the US also. Angry angry hugs. Scottie
Palestinians evacuate wounded from a building destroyed in Israeli bombardment in Rafah refugee camp in Gaza Strip on Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Fatima Shbair)
BY NAJIB JOBAIN, SAMYA KULLAB, RAVI NESSMAN AND MATTHEW LEE
Updated 2:15 PM EDT, October 17, 2023
KHAN YOUNIS, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Health Ministry run by Hamas said an Israeli airstrike on Tuesday hit a Gaza City hospital packed with wounded and other Palestinians seeking shelter, killing hundreds. If confirmed, the attack would be by far the deadliest Israeli airstrike in five wars fought since 2008.
The health ministry, which is run by Hamas, said at least 500 people had been killed. Photos purportedly from al-Ahli Hospital shared widely on social video showed fire engulfing the building, widespread damage and bodies scattered in the wreckage. The photos could not be independently verified.
Several hospitals in Gaza City have become refuges for hundreds of people, hoping they would be spared bombardment after Israel ordered all residents of the city and surrounding areas to evacuate to the southern Gaza Strip.
Hamas, which sparked the latest war with an attack last week that killed more than 1,400 Israelis, called Tuesday’s hospital strike “a horrific massacre.” It said in a statement that most of the casualties were displaced families, patients, children and women.
Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said there were still no details on the hospital deaths: “We will get the details and update the public. I don’t know to say whether it was an Israeli air strike.”
In the south, Israeli airstrikes killed dozens of civilians and at least one senior Hamas figure Tuesday as U.S. officials worked to convince Israel to allow delivery of supplies to desperate civilians, aid groups and hospitals after days of failed hopes for an opening in the siege.
With Israel barring entry of water, fuel and food into Gaza since Hamas’ brutal attack last week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken secured an agreement with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss creation of a mechanism for delivering aid to the territory’s 2.3 million people. U.S. officials said the gain might appear modest, but stressed that it was a significant step forward.
Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Still, as of late Tuesday, there was no deal in place. A top Israeli official said Tuesday his country was demanding guarantees that Hamas militants would not seize any aid deliveries. Tzahi Hanegbi, head of Israel’s National Security Council, suggested entry of aid also depended on the return of hostages held by Hamas.
“The return of the hostages, which is sacred in our eyes, is a key component in any humanitarian efforts,” he told reporters, without elaborating whether Israel was demanding the release of all of the roughly 200 people Hamas abducted before allowing supplies in.
U.S. President Joe Biden prepared to head to the region as he and other world leaders tried to prevent the war from sparking a broader regional conflict. Violence flared Tuesday along Israel’s border with Lebanon, where Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants operate.
With tens of thousands of troops massed along the border, Israel has been expected to launch a ground invasion into Gaza — but plans remained uncertain.
Palestinians flee Israeli bombardment of Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hatem Ali)
Palestinians look for survivors in buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Deir el-Balah, southern Gaza Strip, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Hassan Eslaiah)
“We are preparing for the next stages of war,” military spokesman Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said. “We haven’t said what they will be. Everybody’s talking about a ground offensive. It might be something different.”
In Gaza, dozens of injured were rushed to hospitals after heavy attacks outside the southern cities of Rafah and Khan Younis, residents reported. Bassem Naim, a senior Hamas official and former health minister, reported 27 people were killed in Rafah and 30 in Khan Younis.
An Associated Press reporter saw around 50 bodies brought to Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. Family members came to claim the bodies, wrapped in white bedsheets, some soaked in blood.
An airstrike in Deir al Balah reduced a house to rubble, killing a man and 11 women and children inside and in a neighboring house, some of whom had evacuated from Gaza City. Witnesses said there was no warning before the strike.
Shelling from Israeli tanks hit a U.N. school in central Gaza where 4,000 Palestinians had taken refuge, killing six people and wounding dozens, the United Nations Palestinian refugee agencysaid. At least 24 U.N. installations have been hit the past week, killing at least 14 of the agency’s staff.
Israeli soldiers gather in a staging area near the border with Gaza Strip, in southern Israel Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Mourners gather around the five coffins of the Kotz family during their funeral in Gan Yavne, Israel, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas hideouts, infrastructure and command centers.
A barrage of strikes crashed into the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, leveling an entire block of homes and causing dozens of casualties among families inside, residents said. Among those killed was one of Hamas’ top military commanders, Ayman Nofal, the group’s military wing said — the most high-profile militant known to have been killed so far in the war.
Nofal, formerly the intelligence chief of Hamas’ armed wing, was in charge of Hamas militant activities in the central Gaza Strip, including coordinating activities with other militant groups.
Netanyahu sought to put the blame on Hamas for Israel’s retaliatory attacks and the rising civilian casualties in Gaza. “Not only is it targeting and murdering civilians with unprecedented savagery, it’s hiding behind civilians,” he said.
In Gaza City, Israeli airstrikes also hit the house of Hamas’ top political official, Ismail Haniyeh, killing at least 14 people. Haniyeh is based in Doha, Qatar, but his family lives in Gaza City. The Hamas media office did not immediately identify those killed.
Israel sealed off Gaza after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel that killed over 1,400 people, mostly civilians, and resulted in some 200 taken captive into Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have launched rockets every day since, aiming at cities across Israel.
Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 2,778 people and wounded 9,700, according to the Gaza Health Ministry. Nearly two-thirds of those killed were children, a ministry official said.
Aid workers warned that the territory was near complete collapse. Hospitals were on the verge of losing electricity, threatening the lives of thousands of patients, and hundreds of thousands of people searched for bread and water.
The U.N. agency for Palestinians said more than 400,000 displaced people are crowded into schools and other facilities in the south. The agency said it has only 1 liter of water a day for each of its staff members trapped in the territory.
Israel opened a water line into the south for three hours that benefitted only 14 percent of Gaza’s population, the U.N. said.
At the Rafah crossing, Gaza’s only connection to Egypt, truckloads of aid were waiting to enter. The World Food Program said that it had more than 300 tons of food waiting to cross into Gaza.
Civilians with foreign citizenship — many of them Palestinians with dual nationalities — also waited in Rafah, desperate to get out.
“We come to the border crossing hoping that it will open, but so far there is no information,” said Jameel Abdullah, a Swedish citizen.
Repeated reports that an opening was imminent have proven false as negotiations continued to grind on, including the U.S., Israel and Egypt.
A senior Egyptian official called it a “very tough, complicated back-and-forth process” and said talks were over deliveries through Rafah and Israel’s Karam Shalom crossing to Gaza. He said Israel was insisting to search all aid, and wants to “ensure that such aid won’t benefit Hamas.” He said Egypt proposed that the U.N. oversee the whole process, including inside Gaza. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief the press on the talks.
Officials for Hamas and Israel cast doubt on an immediate opening, saying they were unaware of an agreement.
Blinken arrived in Israel last Thursday with a full-throated message of unequivocal U.S. support for Israel in its campaign to destroy Hamas. But in meetings with seven Arab leaders over the next three days, Blinken’s tone shifted subtly, talking more prominently about the need for humanitarian aid.
U.S. officials said it had become clear by then that already limited Arab tolerance of Israel’s military operations would evaporate entirely if conditions in Gaza worsened. They said that outright condemnation of Israel by Arab leaders would be a boon to Hamas and could encourage Iran, according to four officials who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal administration thinking. That prompted Blinken to press Netanyahu on an aid deal.
Biden’s visit to Israel Wednesday will signal the White House’s support for a key ally. He will also travel to Jordan to meet with Arab leaders amid fears the fighting could spread in the region.
Israel evacuated towns near its northern border with Lebanon, where the military has exchanged fire repeatedly with Hezbollah militants.
Israel said it killed four militants wearing explosive vests who were attempting to cross into the country from Lebanon on Tuesday morning. No group immediately claimed responsibility.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Israel’s continuing offensive in Gaza could cause a violent reaction across the region.
“Bombardments should be immediately stopped. Muslim nations are angry,” Khamenei said, according to state media.
___
Kullab reported from Baghdad. Nessman reported from Jerusalem. Lee reported from Amman. Associated Press journalists Amy Teibel in Jerusalem; Abby Sewell in Beirut; Samy Magdy and Jack Jeffrey in Cairo; and Ashraf Sweilam in el-Arish, Egypt contributed to this report.
Nessman is director of global text for The Associated Press. He has covered major news stories in the United States, Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
This is one of the more honest videos done on the subject. It shows just how much control Israel has over Gaza and the horrible living conditions Israel has forced the people there to live in. It details with facts the dates that Israeli militants took over the deported over 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and lands so they could steal the land for Israel. Then the video report shows how Israeli settlements have grown in the West Bank, and some are so large they are the size of major cities. This mistreatment is the catalyst for the rage that keeps erupting as a desperate people with no hope, no home state, see everything taken from them as they are abused. Killing of civilians is wrong, but it is just as wrong on both sides. To answer the question of where was the Israeli army, guarding illegal settlements and the settlers who attack and harass Palestinians, destroying their homes, corps, and yes even killing them in an attempt to drive them out. Why because one god says the land is Jewish, another god says the land is Muslim, and no gods are real. Hugs
For decades, Israel has prioritized illegal settlements for Jewish Israelis in the West Bank
In the early hours of Saturday, October 7, Israelis living near the border with Gaza awoke to the sounds of Hamas fighters killing and kidnapping their neighbors. As the hours stretched on and they hid, terrified, their frantic text messages contained versions of this question: Where is the army?
To answer that question, we need to travel to the West Bank.
Watch this video to better understand how Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s obsessive focus on the West Bank has left Israelis everywhere vulnerable.
The Rational National points out in his normal reasonable way that holding the view that there is a difference in the worth of a Palestinian child and an Israeli child makes no sense. He also points out many incidents of Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian people, reporters, and children over the last year that received no news coverage. The video is done without sensationalism, which I appreciate. Hugs.
Breaking down the latest from the conflict, including what’s making me go crazy, a good clip from MSNBC, and where major Israeli media is correctly putting the blame.
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. Again it is becoming clear that the Israeli government is using this event to clear out and claim the entire territory of Gaza as Israeli and belonging to the Jewish people only. The goal of Israel has always been to remove the Palestinians and claim all the land, all the territory as its own. Hugs
As Israel engages in a massive air campaign ahead of an anticipated full-scale ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, Israeli President Isaac Herzog said on Friday that all citizens of Gaza are responsible for the attack Hamas perpetrated in Israel last weekend that left over 1,200 people dead.
“It is an entire nation out there that is responsible,” Herzog said at a press conference on Friday. “It is not true this rhetoric about civilians not being aware, not involved. It’s absolutely not true. They could have risen up. They could have fought against that evil regime which took over Gaza in a coup d’etat.”
Herzog’s statement has the same logic as “settlers aren’t civilians.” Given that this is coming from a president not a student group, the chorus of condemnations should be louder than that drawn by the Hamas apologists. Somehow, I don’t think it will be https://t.co/93SoZI3mBk
Holding civilians — half of them not adults — collectively responsible for atrocities committed by a democratically unaccountable regime and using this as a justification for destroying neighborhoods with little discrimination, cutting off water and electricity to an entire population, and ordering the 24-hour mass evacuation of over a million people from a tiny land mass with closed borders on both sides — if this isn’t a disproportionate response I’m not sure what would be.
Thank you to Ten Bears for the link. At the time I write this the number of Palestinian deaths is over 2,300 which is more than double the number of Israeli deaths caused by the Hamas raids. Plus the number of Palestinian injured is more than 4 times the number of Israeli’s injured during the Hamas attacks. Israel has gotten their pound of flesh. Hugs
There is no moral clarity in wreaking vengeance on innocent people.
Friends,
Today, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stood next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a military base in Tel Aviv and said, “Too often in the past, leaders have equivocated in the face of terrorist attacks against Israel and its people. This is — this must be — a moment for moral clarity.”
Blinken is correct. Moral clarity requires that the world condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas militants as unmitigated evil.
But this does not render morally justifiable retaliatory airstrikes on Gaza that have so far killed 1,417 Palestinians, including 447 children, and wounded 6,368, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Or the siege of a city of 2.1 million people who have gone days without electricity, water, or food.
The wounded in Gaza needing intensive care now have no beds that can hold them, and the number of injured exceeds the hospitals’ capacities. The International Committee of the Red Cross warns that “without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.”
More than 300,000 people in Gaza are now homeless. More than 338,000 have left their homes in search of safety, but border crossings into Israel and Egypt are blocked.
Israeli troops are now moving toward the border with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground invasion. I fear what is to come.
It could prove to be very bad for Israel, as well as for those trapped in Gaza. As Thomas L. Friedman writes,
What Israel’s worst enemies — Hamas and Iran — want is for Israel to invade Gaza and get enmeshed in a strategic overreach there that would make America’s entanglement in Falluja look like a children’s birthday party. We are talking house-to-house fighting that would undermine whatever sympathy Israel has garnered on the world stage, deflect world attention from the murderous regime in Tehran and force Israel to stretch its forces to permanently occupy Gaza and the West Bank.
In his private meetings with Israeli authorities, I hope Antony Blinken is calling for restraint.
Justifiable moral revulsion must never be confused with retribution. There is no moral clarity in wreaking vengeance on innocent people.
I want to thank PERSONNELENTE for the link. Most things I am hearing about the Hamas attack on Israel is all the horrible things that Hamas committed. And I 100% agree that what they did is horrible. But that doesn’t give the Israeli government and Israeli military the right to also commit horrible tragedies to the civilian Palestinian population. If it is wrong for Israeli children to be harmed, it is also just as wrong for Palestinian children to be harmed. Period full stop. Palestinian civilians and children have as much worth as Israeli civilians and children! Israel is using US supplied planes and missiles to level entire city blocks in Gaza while the people are still in them. Israeli military is bombing UN schools and hospitals. All things the US / world said was a war crime when Russia was doing them.
Please watch the very short subtitled clip of a Palestinian child showing the rubble that was her home, and saying how scared she is. Sad tearful hugs.
I thank Ten Bears for posting this. It is an important to view. It shows clearly how racism and bigotry of the republicans are harming national security. Chris Hayes makes it clear just how racist Sen Tuberville is.He doesn’t want mixing races in the military, but instead wants the best of the best. Well the way he says it is clear he thinks the best of the best are white. I found the view very informing and interesting. Hugs. Scottie
Scottie's Playtime 