Further strikes in the West Bank were added by Israel
What do we have to do about Israel and the crisis in the Middle East? The case of a Gaza physician who was killed in a bombing
The crisis in the Middle East is a test of our humanity, asking how to respond to a grotesque provocation for which there is no good remedy. In the test, we in the West are not doing very well.
Palestinian children are seen as less victims of large-scale bombing of Gaza because of their association with Hamas, which has a history of terrorism. Consider that more than 1,500 children in Gaza have been killed, according to the Gaza Ministry of Health, and around one-third of Gaza homes have been destroyed or damaged in just two weeks — and this is merely the softening-up before what is expected to be a much bloodier ground invasion.
The world should support Israel after it was hit by a terrorist, but it should not give it carte blanche to kill civilians or deprive them of food, water and medicine. Bravo to Biden for trying to negotiate some humanitarian access to Gaza, but the challenge will be not just getting aid into Gaza but also distributing it to where it’s needed.
What do we think about the call for humanitarian aid for Gazans in addition to an additional 14 billion dollars for Israel? Defensive weapons for Israel’s Iron Dome system would make sense, but in practice, is the idea that we will help pay for humanitarians to mop up the blood caused in part by our weapons?
What are we to tell Dr. Iyad Abu Karsh, a Gaza physician who lost his wife and son in a bombing and then had to treat his injured 2-year-old daughter? He had to deal with the dead of his family and he did not have time for his niece or sister.
In his speech last Thursday, Biden called for America to stand with Israel and the Ukraine when they are attacked. Fair enough. But suppose Ukraine responded to Russian war crimes by laying siege to a Russian city, bombing it into dust and cutting off water and electricity while killing thousands and obliging doctors to operate on patients without anesthetic.
I think Americans would say that Putin started it. Too bad about those Russian children, but they should have chosen somewhere else to be born.
The killing of Gazan civilians is a God’s sin. What can Israel do about the Gazan people? A prayer of Aziza Hasan
Here in Israel, because the Hamas attacks were so brutal and fit into a history of pogroms and Holocaust, they led to a resolve to wipe out Hamas even if this means a large human toll. “Gaza will become a place where no human being can exist,” declared Giora Eiland, a former head of the Israeli National Security Council. There is no other option for guaranteeing the safety of Israel.
A prolonged ground invasion seems to me a particularly risky course, likely to kill large numbers of Israeli soldiers, hostages and especially Gazan civilians. We are better than that, and Israel is better than that. Leveling cities is something the Syrian government did and should not be done by Israel in Gaza.
The best answer to this test is to try even in the face of provocation to cling to our values. That means that despite our biases, we try to uphold all lives as having equal value. If your ethics see some children as invaluable and others as disposable, that’s not moral clarity but moral myopia. We have to not kill Gazan children so as to protect Israeli children.
Aziza Hasan, a devout Muslim, looked out at the group gathered around her, spoke of the loved ones who had died in Israel and Gaza and began reciting the first chapter of the Quran.
“On my right side is Gabrielle, God’s strength,” she told the crowd, translating the song. Raphael is God’s healer. Above my head is God.
Los Angeles, a displaced city with 200 million people: a “naked-child” victim of the Israel-Hamas conflict
The two woman can recall details of the long, brutal history of clashes and wars pitting Israel against its neighbors to the north, east and south — and how those clashes sent fearful shock waves through Los Angeles, a city with one of the nation’s largest populations of Muslims and Jews.
More than 500 Muslims and Jews have been helped by NewGround, a program that helps them listen, disagree, and empathise with one another in order to become friends.
Amjad Abuakaik, who was born in Gaza and is now owner of Sheefa Pharmacy on Palestine Way, said he isn’t the person that he used to be.
Every person in Little Ramallah seems to have a loved one who was killed in the last two weeks. Abukwaik lists friends among the thousands killed since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war.
Locals call Abukwaik Amu, which means “uncle” in Arabic. Abukwaik doesn’t speak to his customers anymore, he used to say things to them.
The Republican leadership has introduced a bill that prevents people with a passport from applying for asylum. It’s already difficult for a Palestinian to do so in the U.S.
“It’s not even part of the discourse,” says Rania Mustafa, executive director of the Palestinian American Community Center. “… it goes back to the idea that Palestinian lives are not worth it. For a long time, we’ve been degraded.
“I’ve always been proud of the fact that I’m American, that I have the right to speak,” Mustafa said. I feel like I’m not only speaking but shouting and screaming at the top of my lungs, to people who are not listening.
The fight against Israel in the wake of Hamas’ attack: Farmer Randy Schmidt and his son, Janet Lucas, who grew up on a farm in Richland
After Hamas’ deadly surprise attack, Israel cut off food, fuel, water and electricity from entering. The aid that crossed into Gaza on Saturday didn’t know how it would be received because of the siege.
Randy Schmidt, 60, a dairy farmer in rural Lone Rock, said the appeal for military aid was going to be a hard sell in these parts.
Mr. Schmidt owns the largest dairy farm in Richland County, a swing district that had voted for the winning presidential candidate in every election since 1980, until 2020, when voters there went for former President Trump’s re-election.
“I mean, money comes hard here,” Mr. Schmidt said. “It’s been a relatively tough year of farming for us. I think as a country, we do support Israel, but I couldn’t believe we can do that much.”
In suburban Milwaukee, however, the questions posed by the violence in the Middle East and Ukraine were less economic than moral for Janet Lucas. The terrorist attacks by Hamas against Israelis, in particular, were triggering for her, she said.
“I understand that there has been a fight between the two for years and years,” said Ms. Lucas, 58. “But the way that it was handled recently, my heart just broke of the devastation,” she said of the Hamas killings and kidnappings of Israeli families. “It took me back to 9/11 — the same feeling, the same fear of, you know, is it going to happen to us, or who’s next?”
She went to Holy Hill on Friday with her son, Michael, who was living in Florida and was in town for the weekend. They felt uneasy about the president’s decision to side with Israel. They could not condone terrorist attacks, they said, but sympathized with Palestinians and what they see as the long discrimination they have endured.
When I sit in the middle, I can see both sides of it. I wonder if the US or any other country could help them to come to some form of peace.
Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza: Implications for Israel and for the Security and Safety of the First Hostage-Free Palestinian Relatives
An armed hostage rescue is considered too risky and dangerous at this moment, experts say, leaving officials from the constellation of countries feverishly continuing their negotiations.
Some Hamas political leaders are trying to distance themselves from the worst atrocities carried out by Hamas gunmen on Oct. 7 and now contend that it was angry Gazans and members of other armed groups — not their own fighters — who kidnapped the civilians. Yet videos released by Hamas fighters themselves depict the brutal killing of unarmed civilians.
Yaakov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet, the Israeli security service, said Israel may have agreed to let humanitarian aid enter Gaza on Saturday morning in light of the hostages’ release Friday night. He said Hamas’s motive might have been to inspire Israelis who have loved ones in captivity in Gaza to pressure their government to delay the impending ground invasion until more hostages are released.
There are still many questions of why, of all the 200 or so hostages, the Raanans were released. Robert D’Amato, an F.B.I. agent who worked on hostage cases, thinks that the two may have been healthy.
There are as many as 10 more Americans in captivity, and Mr. D’Amico said that the Raanans were chosen because they are Americans. Hamas might be trying to temper Israeli retaliation on Gaza by gaining some good will from the Biden administration. President Biden and his team have been closely advising Israel on how it is waging its war on Gaza, although it is not clear how much Israel actually listens to what the Americans say.
On Saturday, Israeli military spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said that the Israel Defense forces would be increasing their strikes on Gaza. “We will deepen our attacks to minimize the dangers to our forces in the next stages of the war. Hagari said that they are going to increase the attacks. He asked the residents of Gaza to move south for their own safety.
The tally includes five Palestinians killed in separate incidents on Sunday. 13 Palestinians, including five minor children, and an Israeli Border Police member were killed in a battle in a West Bank refugee camp last week.
Israel has confirmed that 212 people are being held hostage in Gaza. Military spokesperson Lt. Col. Richard Hecht said on Sunday that Israeli strikes overnight had killed dozens of Palestinian fighters, including the deputy chief of Hamas rocket forces.
In response to a New York Times question, the Israeli military said that it had no intention of considering people who have not left south as members of armed Palestinian groups. It stated in a statement that it does not target civilians. The Israeli foreign ministry denied that there was a reason for the warnings to be labeled ethnic cleansing of Palestinians.
Settler violence against Palestinians has also intensified since the Hamas attack. At least five Palestinians have been killed by settlers, according to Palestinian authorities, and rights groups say settlers have torched cars and attacked several small Bedouin communities, forcing them to evacuate to other areas.
In the occupied West Bank, Israel rarely uses air power. 480 members of Hamas have been arrested by Israel in the West Bank since the start of hostilities.
There were strikes on Hezbollah targets on the border with Lebanon on Saturday after one Israeli soldier was hit by an anti-tank missile. The deputy leader of Hezbollah said on Saturday that his group was in the middle of the battle.
To the northeast, Syrian state media reported that Israeli airstrikes early Sunday targeted the international airports of the Syrian capital Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo, killing one person. Damage to the runways put out of service. The Israeli military had no immediate comment.
The First Delivery of Medical Supplies by the Pentagon and the U.S. to the Occupied Palestinian Territory: The Abu Odeh Case
He said the Pentagon is sending an anti-ballistic missile defense system called the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) to the Middle East, as well as additional Patriot air defense missile system battalions.
Two aircraft carriers and some 2,000 Marines have been deployed to the area by the U.S. in recent weeks.
The medical supplies on the trucks were used for trauma treatment and chronic disease. The delivery also included some food, mattresses and blankets. Aid groups say fuel is needed to power hospitals and desalination plants in order to have enough water.
Lynn Hastings, U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told NPR that the arrival of the trucks Saturday “represents a very small first but important start. Obviously it’s really a drop in the bucket.”
But Amani Abu Odeh, who lives in the town of Jabalia in Gaza’s north, said that the danger of Israeli airstrikes on the road had pushed up the cost of travel. Drivers were now charging between $200 and $300 to take a family south, she said. It cost $3 a person before the war to go somewhere.
“We can’t even afford to eat,” Ms. Abu Odeh said. “We don’t have the money to leave.” She and her family are staying together in one home.
The israeli attack on Gaza city killed a civilian, a civil servant’s cousin, and a friend of his father and his wife
The designating hundreds of thousands of Palestinians as terrorists was a threat of collective punishment and could possibly lead to ethnic cleansing, she wrote on X. She added that deliberately targeting civilians was a war crime.
Some families say that they are staying put in the north because of the humanitarian crisis and other reasons.
“I did not go to the south mainly because I know no one there; where am I to go?” said Yasser Shaban, 57, a civil servant in Gaza City. We are going to end up in the streets.
Mr. Shaban said a cousin took his family to the south soon after airstrikes on Gaza City began in the hours after Hamas fighters attacked Israel on Oct. 7. The cousin’s wife and two daughters were killed in an Israeli airstrike last week, he said. The cousin returned to Gaza City with his surviving family members — a wounded son and his sister — to be treated at Al Shifa Hospital.
