Gaza live: Israeli forces strike shelters in Jabalia
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A US army officer has publicly resigned from the Department of Defence in protest against the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
Major Harrison Mann said he resigned from the Department of Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) over the “nearly unqualified support” the US has provided Israel “which has enabled and empowered the killing and starvation of tens of thousands of innocent Palestinians [in Gaza]".
In a resignation letter posted on LinkedIn on Monday, Mann, who resigned on 1 November, explained to colleagues the reason for his “abrupt departure” from the agency.
“At some point…you’re either advancing a policy that enables [the] mass starvation of children, or you’re not,” he wrote. “I know that I did, in my small way, wittingly advance that policy.”
Read more: Army officer resigns after being ‘haunted’ by US support for Gaza’s ‘ethnic cleansing’
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that at least one thousand Palestinian civilians from Gaza are receiving treatment in Turkey.
Erdogan made the comments during a joint address with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and initially said that one thousand “Hamas members” are being treated in hospitals.
However, two Turkish sources with knowledge speaking to Middle East Eye said the president misspoke and in fact that number referred to Palestinian civilians from Gaza.
In a press conference with his Greek counterpart, held in the Turkish capital of Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that he considered Hamas to be a “resistance organisation”.
The spokesperson for UN secretary general Antonio Guterres, Farhan Haq, says the staff member was killed this morning in Rafah when “their vehicle was struck as they travelled to the European hospital in Rafah this morning”.
“We are deeply saddened to learn of the the death of a United Nations Department of Safety and Security staff member, and an injury to another DSS staff member”, Haq said.
“The secretary general condemns all attacks on UN personnel, and calls for a full investigation,” he added.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told the Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, on Monday that he was saddened that Greece deems Hamas to be a terrorist organization.
In a joint press conference held in the Turkish captial of Ankara, Erdogan told reporters that he considered Hamas to be a “resistance organization”.
“Hamas isn’t a terror group, it is an insurgent group that is trying to protect its territories that have been occupied since 1947,” Erdogan said.
In response, Mitsotakis said that his country and Turkey cannot agree on all the issues related to the Gaza war except that a long-term ceasefire is needed.
“Let’s agree to disagree,” Mitsotakis said to Erdogan.
Earlier on Monday Israeli sources told Middle East Eye reported that Israel began to send back its diplomats to Turkey earlier this month, half a year after it withdrew them over security concerns.
The Israeli military has shot and killed a foreign NGO worker and wounded another in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian officials in the besieged territory.
According to the local authorities, the pair were in a United Nations vehicle displaying the UN flag and insignia when they were targeted.
"We strongly condemn the ongoing atrocities perpetrated by the Israeli occupation against both the Palestinian population and foreign aid workers in Gaza," a statement released by the government in Gaza said.
"We urge all nations to denounce these reprehensible acts."
This is a developing story...
Read more: Israel kills foreign aid worker in Gaza's Rafah, say local authorities
Hamas’s armed wing, al-Qassam Brigades, has lost contact with fighters guarding four Israeli captives in the besieged Gaza Strip, including Hersh Golberg-Poline, they said in a statement on Monday.
The group released video footage on Saturday of two men being held captive in Gaza and seen alive in the footage.
The campaign group, Hostages and Missing Families Forum, identified the two in a statement as Omri Miran, 47, and Keith Siegel, 64, They were abducted by fighters during the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October.
Hamas also released another video showing captive Hersh Goldberg-Polin alive last week.
The Israeli military has launched a new wave of attacks across the Gaza Strip similar in intensity to the peak of its seven-month war on the besieged Palestinian enclave.
Heavy air strikes have been reported across the strip since Friday, killing at least 120 Palestinians and wounding dozens more, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
The raids coincided with incursions into Jabalia in northern Gaza, Zeitoun neighbourhood in Gaza City and eastern Rafah.
The ground advances have been met with fierce resistance by Hamas and other Palestinian groups.
At least five Israeli soldiers have been killed during the weekend fighting, the military said.
READ MORE: Israel unleashes heaviest bombing in months
The UK's Labour Party is calling on the government to suspend arms sales to Israel amid a new offensive on Rafah in southern Gaza.
Shadow foreign secretary David Lammy’s call echoes US President Joe Biden’s threat to halt exports should Israel proceed with the offensive, which is likely to endanger the lives of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians.
“President Biden is correct to tell [Israeli] Prime Minister Netanyahu that the US will not supply weapons that could be used in a Rafah offensive if Israel proceeds with a full-scale attack on Rafah against the international community’s warnings,” Lammy said, according to a report published in the Daily Telegraph.
He added: “The UK government should now work with the US to try and prevent a Rafah offensive by being clear it will assess UK exports and, if the Rafah offensive goes ahead, join our American allies in suspending weapons or components that could be used in that Rafah offensive.”
READ MORE: UK: Labour calls for ‘pause’ in Israel arms sales as Cameron dithers
The Palestinian Red Crescent says two of its members of its medical teams in Gaza have been released from Israeli military custody but a further four remain unaccounted for.
Bassam Ahmad Abu Ta'ima and Mu'min Shaban Al-Taif spent 49 days in Israeli captivity after being detained at the Al-Amal hospital in Khan Younis in March.
The organisation says it does not know the fate of the four others believed to be held by Israel.
This morning, the occupation forces released two members of the PRCS ambulance crews, who are the EMT Bassam Ahmad Abdul Khaliq Abu Ta'ima and the volunteer paramedic Mu'min Shaban Al-Taif, after 49 days of detention. They were arrested during the second raid on Al-Amal Hospital… pic.twitter.com/tOBkLuawPy
— PRCS (@PalestineRCS) May 13, 2024
University of Sussex students have launched an encampment, demanding that the university divest from all companies complicit in Israel’s war on Gaza and urging governments to stop arming Israel.
An encampment spokesperson said in a statement on Monday that students were escalating their protest activities after receiving a “vague response” from the university to seven key demands they made last month.
On 17 April, students and staff sent an open letter to Vice Chancellor Sasha Roseneil with the demand list which, along with divestment, asked the university to fully disclose its investments and publicly condemn “Israel’s colonial genocide in Gaza”.
Roseneil responded on 2 May after she and members of the university’s executive team met with representatives of the University and College Union and the Students’ Union, offering an internal review process of the university’s investment policies.
The encampment spokesperson said her response “fell short of making a commitment towards decisive divestment and boycott action”, pointing to Trinity College Dublin which announced it was divesting from Israel last week after student protests and 76 universities in Spain which have suspending collaboration agreements with Israeli universities.
“We (the students) fail to see how the [vice chancellor’s] vague response properly addresses the demands of the letter and believe this to be an attempt to pacify the student body,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Monday.
“We argue that there is no room for ambiguity when it comes to condemning genocide committed in our names.”
Oxfam has issued a stark warning about the deteriorating situation in Gaza, as critical water and sanitation infrastructure continues to be destroyed by Israeli forces.
Alongside overcrowding, malnutrition, and soaring temperatures, these conditions are pushing Gaza towards a potentially deadly epidemic outbreak, the aid agency cautioned.
More than 350,000 people have been displaced by the recent Israeli invasion of Rafah, exacerbating already dire living conditions in overcrowded shelters and camps, with diminishing food and fuel supplies due to closed border crossings.
UNICEF's analysis indicates that 87 percent of critical water and sanitation facilities in Gaza have been destroyed or severely damaged, further exacerbating the crisis.
Oxfam’s Middle East Director, Sally Abi Khalil, said: “The situation is desperate, with so many people in Gaza living in fear and being forced to endure inhumane and unsanitary conditions caused by sustained Israeli bombardment. One colleague told me there was so much human waste in the streets, it literally smelt like disease.
An image shared by the Quds News Network claims to show bags of flour destined for Gaza tipped off an aid truck and on to the floor at what appears to be Kerem Shalom (Karem Abu Salem) crossing with the besieged territory.
For months now, Israelis had been camped at the crossing, trying to prevent the entry of aid into Gaza.
On several occasions, they have attacked trucks carrying food, resulting in spoilage.
BREAKING: Rampaging Israeli settlers attack trucks carrying desperately needed humanitarian aid on the way to the besieged Gaza Strip, unloading and destroying bags of wheat flour. pic.twitter.com/79BwSq5QWU
— Quds News Network (@QudsNen) May 13, 2024
The lack of food entering the Gaza Strip following the closure of the Rafah crossing, along with the increased amount of people heading to southern and central areas bring fear of a new famine hitting civilians, Middle East Eye's correspondent in Deir al-Balah says.
Deir al-Balah is relatively small compared to other cities in Gaza, with vast agricultural lands. The city, still dealing with regular Israeli strikes, is unprepared for the influx of displaced people fleeing Israel's attacks on Rafah.
"The presence of thousands of displaced people all of a sudden created a state of chaos in the markets of Deir al-Balah," Mohammed al-Hajjar, MEE's correspondent, said.
"For starters, the Rafah and Karem Abu Salem crossings are closed for the sixth day. No items have entered the south [of Gaza]. Additionally, the items currently present are not sufficient for the high number of people which recently came to the city. The stores are almost out of food supplies"
Al-Hajjar says there is "a heavy lack" of food supplies, with most of it consisting of aid brought from people in Rafah, who are selling it in able to afford other essentials.
"Today, you see very few canned foods and cheeses," he said. "Flour bags are not present in adundance in Deir al-Balah. There are not many bakeries here, maybe two or three bakeries, with two distribution points. An insane amount of people stand in line to buy a single bag of bread."
Al-Hajjar said the price of bread tripled in two days, and that the price of other items such as vegetables is also increasing.
"People do not have money after seven months of war," he added. "There is a big liquidity and cash crisis in several areas of Gaza that has been ongoing over the past few months. People cannot buy things at such high costs. Those who still have some money try to buy the essentials and food supplies for very high prices.
"Thousands of people are in the market just to ask about the prices without buying anything, because they cannot afford it in this situation. People are trying to spare expenses as much as possible by using the supplies they have from the aid distributions in Rafah, from the boxed they used to get from relief and aid agencies there."
Those who have been depending on daily supplies to be able to eat or drink may find it difficult to cope with the scarcity of resources, he says.
"Those who eat and drink by the day will not be able to get [what they need to survive]. We could be seeing a new famine in the displacement areas. Displaced people are very worried about the lack of supplies. A major crisis too is related to the lack of water fit for drinking."
Displaced people from Rafah to other areas in southern and central Gaza worry the closure of the Rafah crossing and the lack of aid coming through the Karem Abu Salem crossing may bring them to a new heatlh crisis.
"Some other items such as potatoes and other vegetables are now completely unavailable, and have been for over a week," Ahmed Abu Aziz in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, told Middle East Eye. "We are also talking about essential foodstuffs and aid that used to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing or even the Karem Abu Salem crossing. These foodstuffs have not entered [again] until now."
Abu Aziz says the bigger crisis may hit people in a week or so, as the aid brought in by people who escaped Rafah would have been depleted.
"In general, there is now a lack of foodstuffs in the markets," he added. "We are talking about the areas al-Tayara, al-Alam, al-Awda and al-Attar, in which foodstuffs have become very few and rare with very high prices.
"One kilogram of sugar that used to cost 12-13 ($3.2-3.5) shekels now costs 95 shekels ($25.5)."
Abu Aziz adds that aid trucks have been unable to reach Rafah or Khan Younis since the beginning of Israel's offensive on eastern Rafah last week.
"There is [also] a lack of fresh water," he says. "The al-Yassin water station, which was present in al-Sultan in the west of Rafah city, used to distribute water to hundreds of thousands of people for free. Now, it is in one of the targeted areas which are being evacuated by citizens heading to Khan Younis and Dear al-Balah."
Abu Aziz says the areas civilians are fleeing towards do not have fresh water access, and only have salted water which has not been properly filtered out.
"This could lead to a health crisis that ravages infects the citizens in Khan Younis and the central areas."
Israel’s occupation of Palestine and subjugation of the Palestinian people have long been described as colonial. From the theft of land and natural resources to nationalism and capitalism, Israel has aligned itself with colonial tactics and rhetoric.
But how does the state of Israel, which is waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, continue to garner international support from people who seemingly have nothing to gain from the Israeli occupation?
It’s important to recognise that colonialism doesn’t just impact the immediate region geographically. Modern colonialism permeates society virtually, and consequently affects communities internationally.
Israel’s colonial tactics have involved broadcasting war crimes and obscenities online. Much of this is the result of Israeli soldiers’ social media activities.
Israeli soldiers have been seen rejoicing in the destruction of Palestinian homes, abusing Palestinians, mocking assassinated aid workers, and even posing with Palestinian women’s undergarments.
READ MORE: How TikTok and Instagram help to spread Israeli colonialism, opinion by Samar El Masri
