Yawn....... Israel attacked by Hamas

[themickey]

Biden jokes about Trump’s ‘mental illness’ at traditional Washington dinner
The digs against his Republican rival come as the US president deflects criticism that his memory is hazy and he appears confused.

Biden departs the Grand Hyatt Hotel following the annual Gridiron Dinner in Washington [Tom Brenner/Reuters]

17 Mar 2024
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024...ntal-illness-at-traditional-washington-dinner

US President Joe Biden has joked about former President Donald Trump’s mental fitness during a speech at the Gridiron Club dinner, a Washington tradition that began in the 1880s.

“One candidate is too old and mentally unfit to be president. The other one is me,” Biden said on Saturday in front of more than 650 guests who included the Taoiseach of Ireland Leo Varadkar, Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, whose US business could be banned by Biden.

“Don’t tell him, he thinks he’s running against Barack Obama, that’s what he said,” said Biden, 81, who also quipped that he was staying up way past his bedtime.

Trump’s campaign did not respond, though the 77-year-old Republican leader has also questioned Biden’s mental capacity to be president. The Democratic leader has deflected ongoing criticism that his memory is hazy and he appears confused.

It was the first time Biden had attended the traditional dinner during his presidency, and comes as the 2024 election looms and the November rematch between Biden and Trump heats up.

Biden’s appearance at the dinner, in which politicians and journalists trade humorous barbs in a white-tie formal affair, was the first time a president has attended in person since Trump himself came in 2018.

Biden reinforced the importance of the press, which he said is not “the enemy of the people”, in stark contrast to previous remarks by Trump about the news media.

He also spoke about the war in Ukraine with Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, who attended Saturday’s dinner. “We will not bow down, they [Ukrainians] will not bow down and I will not bow down,” Biden said.

After his speech, Biden descended to the floor and took selfies with reporters and called one guest’s mother.

Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, representing the Democratic Party at the event, also spoke, as well as Utah Governor Spencer Cox, representing the Republican Party.

Cox, 48, joked that he was announcing his candidacy for the presidency “in 2052, when I still will be younger than both President Biden and President Trump”.

 

[themickey]

Biden jokes about Trump’s ‘mental illness’ at traditional Washington dinner

Two geriatric retards vying for office. What a balls up.

 

[Cuddles]

The dozen UNRWA employees named as terrorists in the report from Israel were identified because they proudly appear in HAMAS VIDEOS on October 7th inside Israel taking part in the attack. This is coupled with the reality that their cell phone signals were geo-located to be inside Israel on that date.

Any report casting doubt on the reality that numerous UNRWA employees are active members of the Hamas terrorist group can easily be discounted with the evidence. The reality is that there are probably at least another 150 UNRWA employees directly involved in the October 7th attack who have not been named yet.

Experts provide the reality about the absurd claims that confessions were coerced and were false statements. The videos posted to the internet by Hamas itself show the reality.

Experts slam leaked UNRWA report claiming Israel coerced workers into making false statements: 'Ridiculous'
Israel says dozens of UNRWA employees directly involved in atrocities carried out against its civilians on Oct 7
https://www.foxnews.com/world/exper...ed-workers-making-false-statements-ridiculous

There is reality and then there is Pallywood creating fake narratives that Israel is using hunger as a weapon. Maybe Hamas needs to stop threatening to murder anyone who cooperates with Israel in distributing food aid.

Certainly the entire food delivery situation is not optimal -- however it is a outrageous stretch to claim Israel is deliberately using hunger as a weapon. The primary problems in Gaza are distribution, looting and theft of the food by Hamas.

Israel calls EU's accusations it is using Gaza hunger as weapon of war 'outrageous'
“There is no restriction on the amount of food and water that is allowed to be delivered into the Gaza Strip,” government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told reporters in Israel.
https://www.jpost.com/israel-hamas-war/article-791820

Israel rejected as “false” and “outrageous” European Union High Representative Josep Borrell’s claim it was using starvation as a “weapon of war” in Gaza.

“There is no restriction on the amount of food and water that is allowed to be delivered into the Gaza Strip,” government spokeswoman Tal Heinrich told reporters in Israel.

“We tried to better the mechanism of aid distribution across the Gaza Strip,” she said, noting that the trucks entering Gaza have excess capacity and that the backlog of aid is on the Gaza side of the border.

“The [distribution] mechanism has not been functioning as it should because they [it] was reliant on Hamas,” she said.

Heinrich spoke after Borrell delivered a blistering attack on Israel for its conduct in Gaza during a speech he delivered to the UN Security Council in New York on Tuesday in which he said that in Gaza, “starvation” was used as a “weapon of war.”

“We are facing now a population fighting for their own survival,’ Borrell said as he painted a dire picture of the impact of the war in Gaza using Hamas data.

More than 30,000 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed since the start of the war, while 1.8 million people have been displaced, and another half a million people are “on the brink of starvation,” Borrell said. Israel has stated that over 13,000 of the Gaza fatalities are combatants.

Israel's allies assert hunger crisis in Gaza, send aid by land and sea
He spoke as the international community, including Israel’s strongest allies, the United States and Great Britain, have asserted that there is a hunger crisis in Gaza. The United States has pushed to open Gaza’s air and sea space for the delivery of aid and has pressured Israelis to open additional land crossings into the enclave.

“Humanitarian assistance needs to reach Gaza, and the European Union is working as hard as it can to make this possible,” Borrell said.

He blamed Israel for the humanitarian crisis, noting that at issue was not “a natural disaster. It is not a flood. It is not an earthquake. It is man-made.

“And when we look for alternative ways of providing support – by sea or by air – we have to remind that we have to do it because the natural way of providing support through roads is being closed, artificially closed,” Borrell said.

“Let humanitarian support flow into Gaza. Continue asking – and more than asking – Israel not to impede humanitarian to go through the natural way, which is by road,” Borrell stated.

He appeared to compare Israel to Russia when he said, “When we condemn this happening in Ukraine, we have to use the same words for what is happening in Gaza.”

Borrell also spoke in support of the United Nations Relief Works Agency, which is the main service provider for Palestinian refugees. Israel is working to close the agency after finding that at least 12 of its staff members had participated in the Hamas-led October 7 invasion of Israel in which over 1,200 people were killed and another 253 were taken hostage.

Israel has also said that at least 190 of its staff members are connected to Hamas.

Borrell pushed back at criticism by UNRWA’s opponents that by recognizing as refugees the descendants of those Palestinians who fled from Israel during the 1948 War of Independence, it was creating a permanent and expanding class of refugees.

“Let me remind you something,” Borrell told the UNSC. “UNRWA exists because there are Palestinian refugees. It is not a present to the Palestinians; it is an answer to their needs. UNRWA exists because first, there were Palestinian refugees. We won't make these refugees disappear by making UNRWA disappear. They will still be there.

“In fact, there is only one way to make UNRWA disappear: making those refugees citizens of a Palestinian state that coexists with an Israeli state. Almost everybody agrees on that, but how can we make this solution a reality?

“There is no magic solution. But maybe there are credible ways to try to achieve it. The two-state solution,” Borrell said.

 

[themickey]

Israeli army destroys broadcasting vehicles in al-Shifa Hospital
https://www.aljazeera.com/ 18 March 2024

Israeli forces have destroyed the broadcasting vehicles of press crews at al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza.

The hospital was a base for journalists to report from throughout Israel’s war on the Gaza Strip.

The medical complex’s courtyard has been bulldozed, while the Israeli army has opened fire towards its buildings warning those inside it not to approach the windows, witnesses said.

 

[themickey]

Oxfam accuses Israel of ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to famine-stalked Gaza
Aid trucks are waiting an average of 20 days to access the enclave, the NGO says, as warnings of impending famine rise.

Children carry bags of flour after humanitarian aid was distributed in Gaza City [Handout/AFP]

18 Mar 2024
Israel is using bureaucracy to “deliberately” hinder aid supplies headed into Gaza, Oxfam has claimed.

The NGO’s assertion was made in a report titled: Inflicting Unprecedented Suffering and Destruction, which was released on Monday. It came amid a rise in international protest against the shortages of food, water and medicine in the besieged and battered Palestinian enclave, with one United Nations agency warning that famine will arrive by May at the latest.

Oxfam detailed the rejection of a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators, and water and sanitation gear. The NGO said this is “just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts”.

It went on to state that Israel is “breaking one of the key provisions demanded by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – to boost humanitarian aid in light of the risk of genocide in Gaza”.

“People living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations,” it adds.

“The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened,” said Oxfam Middle East and North Africa director Sally Abi Khalil.

“Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it. We believe that Israel is failing to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide.”

Israel controls most of Gaza’s seven land crossings but only Rafah and Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom crossings are open to aid, Oxfam said. Egypt partially controls the Rafah border.

A total of 15,413 trucks have been allowed into Gaza since October 7, according to the NGO, five times less than the minimum required.

Oxfam said its aid cargo is stuck at the El Arish warehouse in Egypt just 40 kilometres away from the Gaza border, and added trucks wait for 20 days on average to be able to pass through.

Scores of aid workers have been hit in Israeli attacks and some 400 aid seekers have been killed. The United States has resorted to aid airdrops that in one case proved fatal.

The US is also working on plans to construct a seaport. A vessel towing 200 tonnes of aid to test a European Union-backed effort to open a sea corridor arrived in Gaza last week.

Josep Borell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, reiterated on Monday previous calls for Israel to lift the blockade, and again accused Tel Aviv of using starvation as a “weapon of war”.

“In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Borrell said, speaking at a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels. “This is unacceptable. Famine is being used as a weapon of war.”

Responding to Borell, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said Borell should stop “attacking” Israel, and blamed Hamas for disrupting aid.

“Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” he said.

Famine by May
However, a United Nations-backed body warned in a separate report released on Monday that more than 200,000 people in northern Gaza – 70 percent of the population in the area – face famine between now and May.

Household malnutrition levels have likely reached or surpassed famine thresholds, with the results being looming “steep” rises in child deaths, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said.

The IPC is a scaling tool used globally to assess the risks of food shortages and provide early warnings to governments. It was developed by the UN and private partners and determines when the UN can formally declare a famine.

Virtually all households across Gaza are starving, the report found.

In the north, where one in three children under two years is already acutely malnourished, people in nearly two-thirds of households went days without food at least 10 times in the last 30 days, the report said.

Half of Gaza’s population – 1.11 million people – are now in IPC’s phase 5 or catastrophe stage, the highest indicator of a famine.

People in central and southern Gaza are already at phase 4 emergency levels – just one step from famine – according to the IPC.

“Waiting for a confirmation that famine is occurring or has actually occurred to take radical measures is indefensible,” the researchers said.

Source: Al Jazeera

 

[themickey]

Meanwhile Biden and his team continue to support the war against unarmed civilians.

 

[vanzandt]

Oxfam accuses Israel of ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to famine-stalked Gaza
Aid trucks are waiting an average of 20 days to access the enclave, the NGO says, as warnings of impending famine rise.

Children carry bags of flour after humanitarian aid was distributed in Gaza City [Handout/AFP]

18 Mar 2024
Israel is using bureaucracy to “deliberately” hinder aid supplies headed into Gaza, Oxfam has claimed.

The NGO’s assertion was made in a report titled: Inflicting Unprecedented Suffering and Destruction, which was released on Monday. It came amid a rise in international protest against the shortages of food, water and medicine in the besieged and battered Palestinian enclave, with one United Nations agency warning that famine will arrive by May at the latest.

Oxfam detailed the rejection of a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators, and water and sanitation gear. The NGO said this is “just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts”.

It went on to state that Israel is “breaking one of the key provisions demanded by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – to boost humanitarian aid in light of the risk of genocide in Gaza”.

“People living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations,” it adds.

“The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened,” said Oxfam Middle East and North Africa director Sally Abi Khalil.

“Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it. We believe that Israel is failing to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide.”

Israel controls most of Gaza’s seven land crossings but only Rafah and Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom crossings are open to aid, Oxfam said. Egypt partially controls the Rafah border.

A total of 15,413 trucks have been allowed into Gaza since October 7, according to the NGO, five times less than the minimum required.

Oxfam said its aid cargo is stuck at the El Arish warehouse in Egypt just 40 kilometres away from the Gaza border, and added trucks wait for 20 days on average to be able to pass through.

Scores of aid workers have been hit in Israeli attacks and some 400 aid seekers have been killed. The United States has resorted to aid airdrops that in one case proved fatal.

The US is also working on plans to construct a seaport. A vessel towing 200 tonnes of aid to test a European Union-backed effort to open a sea corridor arrived in Gaza last week.

Josep Borell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, reiterated on Monday previous calls for Israel to lift the blockade, and again accused Tel Aviv of using starvation as a “weapon of war”.

“In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Borrell said, speaking at a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels. “This is unacceptable. Famine is being used as a weapon of war.”

Responding to Borell, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said Borell should stop “attacking” Israel, and blamed Hamas for disrupting aid.

“Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” he said.

Famine by May
However, a United Nations-backed body warned in a separate report released on Monday that more than 200,000 people in northern Gaza – 70 percent of the population in the area – face famine between now and May.

Household malnutrition levels have likely reached or surpassed famine thresholds, with the results being looming “steep” rises in child deaths, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said.

The IPC is a scaling tool used globally to assess the risks of food shortages and provide early warnings to governments. It was developed by the UN and private partners and determines when the UN can formally declare a famine.

Virtually all households across Gaza are starving, the report found.

In the north, where one in three children under two years is already acutely malnourished, people in nearly two-thirds of households went days without food at least 10 times in the last 30 days, the report said.

Half of Gaza’s population – 1.11 million people – are now in IPC’s phase 5 or catastrophe stage, the highest indicator of a famine.

People in central and southern Gaza are already at phase 4 emergency levels – just one step from famine – according to the IPC.

“Waiting for a confirmation that famine is occurring or has actually occurred to take radical measures is indefensible,” the researchers said.

Source: Al Jazeera

Source: Al Jazeera

 

[Cuddles]

Oxfam accuses Israel of ‘deliberately’ blocking aid to famine-stalked Gaza
Aid trucks are waiting an average of 20 days to access the enclave, the NGO says, as warnings of impending famine rise.

Children carry bags of flour after humanitarian aid was distributed in Gaza City [Handout/AFP]

18 Mar 2024
Israel is using bureaucracy to “deliberately” hinder aid supplies headed into Gaza, Oxfam has claimed.

The NGO’s assertion was made in a report titled: Inflicting Unprecedented Suffering and Destruction, which was released on Monday. It came amid a rise in international protest against the shortages of food, water and medicine in the besieged and battered Palestinian enclave, with one United Nations agency warning that famine will arrive by May at the latest.

Oxfam detailed the rejection of a warehouse full of international aid including oxygen, incubators, and water and sanitation gear. The NGO said this is “just one example of an overall humanitarian response that Israel has made so dangerous and dysfunctional as to be impossible for aid agencies to work at the speed and scale necessary to save lives, despite best efforts”.

It went on to state that Israel is “breaking one of the key provisions demanded by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) – to boost humanitarian aid in light of the risk of genocide in Gaza”.

“People living in Gaza will suffer mass death from disease and starvation far beyond the current 31,000 Palestinian war casualties unless Israel takes immediate steps to end its violations,” it adds.

“The ICJ order should have shocked Israeli leaders to change course, but since then conditions in Gaza have actually worsened,” said Oxfam Middle East and North Africa director Sally Abi Khalil.

“Israeli authorities are not only failing to facilitate the international aid effort but are actively hindering it. We believe that Israel is failing to take all measures within its power to prevent genocide.”

Israel controls most of Gaza’s seven land crossings but only Rafah and Karem Abu Salem/Kerem Shalom crossings are open to aid, Oxfam said. Egypt partially controls the Rafah border.

A total of 15,413 trucks have been allowed into Gaza since October 7, according to the NGO, five times less than the minimum required.

Oxfam said its aid cargo is stuck at the El Arish warehouse in Egypt just 40 kilometres away from the Gaza border, and added trucks wait for 20 days on average to be able to pass through.

Scores of aid workers have been hit in Israeli attacks and some 400 aid seekers have been killed. The United States has resorted to aid airdrops that in one case proved fatal.

The US is also working on plans to construct a seaport. A vessel towing 200 tonnes of aid to test a European Union-backed effort to open a sea corridor arrived in Gaza last week.

Josep Borell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, reiterated on Monday previous calls for Israel to lift the blockade, and again accused Tel Aviv of using starvation as a “weapon of war”.

“In Gaza, we are no longer on the brink of famine, we are in a state of famine, affecting thousands of people,” Borrell said, speaking at a conference on humanitarian aid for Gaza in Brussels. “This is unacceptable. Famine is being used as a weapon of war.”

Responding to Borell, Israeli foreign minister Israel Katz said Borell should stop “attacking” Israel, and blamed Hamas for disrupting aid.

“Israel allows extensive humanitarian aid into Gaza by land, air, and sea for anyone willing to help,” he said.

Famine by May
However, a United Nations-backed body warned in a separate report released on Monday that more than 200,000 people in northern Gaza – 70 percent of the population in the area – face famine between now and May.

Household malnutrition levels have likely reached or surpassed famine thresholds, with the results being looming “steep” rises in child deaths, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report said.

The IPC is a scaling tool used globally to assess the risks of food shortages and provide early warnings to governments. It was developed by the UN and private partners and determines when the UN can formally declare a famine.

Virtually all households across Gaza are starving, the report found.

In the north, where one in three children under two years is already acutely malnourished, people in nearly two-thirds of households went days without food at least 10 times in the last 30 days, the report said.

Half of Gaza’s population – 1.11 million people – are now in IPC’s phase 5 or catastrophe stage, the highest indicator of a famine.

People in central and southern Gaza are already at phase 4 emergency levels – just one step from famine – according to the IPC.

“Waiting for a confirmation that famine is occurring or has actually occurred to take radical measures is indefensible,” the researchers said.

Source: Al Jazeera

To this day you got ghouls questioning the obvious result (genocidal starvation) of official policy issued almost 6 months ago. Whaaaa, people need food? Shocking warning!

 

[Cuddles]

To this day you got ghouls questioning the obvious result (genocidal starvation) of official policy issued almost 6 months ago. Whaaaa, people need food? Shocking warning!

View attachment 336303
View attachment 336305

 

[gwb-trading]

Last Thursday, Hamas opened fire on an aide convoy in north Gaza that left 21 people dead and wounded more than 150.

Hamas is holding up to it pledge to slaughter any residents of Gaza who coordinate or accept aid from Israel.

Hamas is solely responsible for the food crisis facing residents remaining in northern Gaza.

In southern Gaza, Hamas steals the aid entering via Rafah rather than killing the civilians accepting it. It is sad to see that UNRWA once again was seen in bed with Hamas; as Hamas was using the UNRWA warehouse location in southern Gaza as a holding location for stolen food and then Hamas was CHARGING MONEY to the residents of Gaza if they wanted any of this donated food.

Of course an attack from Israel killed the Hamas terrorist chief running this southern Gaza operation while at the same time killing or wounding one or more UNRWA employees at the same location.