Over 2 million Palestinians starving as 45% of all housing units in Gaza destroyed by Israel

News Network
November 9, 2023

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An independent United Nations expert has said that the systematic bombing of civilian infrastructure and widespread destruction of the besieged Gaza Strip by Israel amounts to a war crime and a crime against humanity. 

The Special Rapporteur on Adequate Housing, Balakrishnan Rajagopal, said on Wednesday that the Israeli attacks on targets in the Gaza Strip caused the destruction or damage of 45% of all housing units in the besieged Palestinian enclave. 

He also warned that the destruction comes at a “huge cost in human lives.”

“Carrying out hostilities with the knowledge that they will systematically destroy and damage civilian housing and infrastructure, rendering an entire city – such as Gaza City – uninhabitable for civilians is a war crime,” he added

Rajagopal, the Human Rights Council commissioner, noted that when these actions are “directed against the civilian population, they also amount to crimes against humanity.”

The UN rapporteur stressed that the systematic or widespread bombing of housing, civilian objects and infrastructure is strictly prohibited by international law.

According to the expert, international humanitarian law is based on the distinction between civilian and military targets. He stressed that civilian housing in Israel does not represent military targets.

According to Rajagopal, the Israeli order to evacuate the northern Gaza Strip, which was issued despite the lack of adequate shelter or aid for the displaced, while cutting off water, food, fuel and medicine and repeatedly attacking evacuation routes and “safe” areas, constituted a “cruel and flagrant violation of international humanitarian law.”

Also last week, a group of United Nations experts warned time was running out to “prevent genocide and humanitarian catastrophe” in Gaza, expressing their deep frustration with Israel’s refusal to halt plans to decimate the besieged Gaza Strip.

They expressed grave concern about the safety of UN and humanitarian workers and hospitals and schools that are providing refuge and life-saving medical services to the people of Gaza.

Operation ‘clearly wrong’: UN chief

Antonio Guterres said on Wednesday that the number of civilians killed in Gaza indicates there is something “clearly wrong” with Israel’s military operation.

“There are violations by Hamas when they have human shields. But when one looks at the number of civilians that were killed with the military operations, there is something that is clearly wrong,” Guterres said.

“Every year the highest number of killing of children by any of the actors in all the conflicts that we witness is the maximum in the hundreds,” Guterres added. “We have in a few days in Gaza seen thousands of children killed.”

Israel continues targeting residential areas across Gaza with 214 people killed in the last 24 hours.

The Health Ministry in Gaza said that at least 10,569 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza – including 4,324 children – since October 7.

Over 2 million Palestinians starving 

Al Mezan Center for Human Rights says half of those are children.

Thousands are also struggling to find “even a bite of bread” in Gaza. “People line up for hours at the very few functioning bakeries left,” the group said.

‘Enough is enough’

Martin Griffiths says conditions in the occupied West Bank are becoming “increasingly dire”.

He pointed to rising numbers of Palestinians killed and injured – including children – as well as growing displacement amid Israeli military and settler attacks.

Meanwhile, human rights groups say Israel has dramatically increased its use of administrative detention since the start of the aggression, while also turning a blind eye to cases of torture and degrading treatment in prisons.

Administrative detention is a procedure under which prisoners are held without charges.

Citing local NGOs, they said Israel has detained more than 2,200 Palestinians since October 7.

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News Network
November 18,2024

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Mangaluru: The Ullal police have arrested Manohar, the owner of Vazco Beach Resort, and its manager Bharath in connection with the drowning of three college girls from Mysuru at the resort’s swimming pool on November 17.

City Commissioner of Police Anupam Agrawal confirmed the arrests, stating that a case has been registered under Section 106 of BNS. The bodies of the victims, all in their twenties, have been handed over to their parents. The women had arrived at the resort for a weekend getaway on November 16.

Following the tragic incident, the resort was sealed by officials led by Mangaluru Assistant Commissioner Harshavardhan. The trade license of the resort, issued on June 13, 2024, has been suspended, and the tourism department has temporarily revoked the resort's registration. These actions prohibit the resort from engaging in any tourism-related activities until further notice.

Someshwara TMC Chief Officer stated that the suspension was due to the resort's failure to implement adequate safety measures, which resulted in the loss of three lives. Further investigations are underway.

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News Network
November 15,2024

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Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has killed or captured 69 terrorists linked to the Israeli spy agency Mossad during a major counterterrorism drill in the country's southeast, its spokesman says.  

General Ahmad Shafaei, the spokesman for the “Martyrs of Security” drill, said Friday that a total of 23 terrorists have been killed and another 46 arrested in various clean-up operations ever since the IRGC Ground Force launched it in the Sistan and Baluchestan province on November 1.

Seven terrorists have also turned themselves in during the period.

“The undeniable fact about terrorists is that they rely on arrogant powers, particularly the intelligence service of the wicked and vicious Zionist regime," Shafaei said.

“Unfortunately, weapons and munitions at terrorists’ disposal are among the most sophisticated ones in the world. This accounts for their heavy dependence.” 

The official stated that several members of the disbanded terror teams were non-Iranian nationals, who had been hired by foreign intelligence agencies to carry out acts of sabotage and terror inside Iran.

In a most recent operation, six terrorists were arrested and four others were eliminated, three of whom were non-Iranians, he added. 

On October 26, ten members of Iran's law enforcement forces were killed in a terrorist attack in the Gohar Kuh district of Taftan in the Sistan and Baluchestan province.

The so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group claimed responsibility for the assault, which was one of the deadliest in the province in recent months.

The group has carried out numerous terrorist attacks in Iran, primarily in Sistan and Baluchestan.

Its tactics include the abduction of border guards as well as targeting civilians and police stations within the province to incite chaos and disorder.

In January, Iran launched a military operation during which the headquarters of the Pakistan-based terrorist group was targeted in missile strikes, destroying its infrastructure.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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