Al Jazeera correspondent Wael Dahdouh (center) prays outside a hospital in Deir al Balah in the southern Gaza Strip for the bodies of his wife, son, daughter and grandson, who were killed in an Israeli airstrike on the Nuisserat refugee camp. on Thursday, October 26, 2023.
On Thursday, US President Joe Biden categorically reiterated his opposition to a ceasefire in connection with the Israeli genocide in Gaza at a campaign rally in Illinois. Asked: “What are the prospects for a ceasefire in Gaza?” Biden replied: “None. ‘No possibility’.
Biden’s comments made clear that the United States is actively fomenting Israel’s genocide in Gaza and working to ignite a larger war in the Middle East. They came just two days after White House Department of Homeland Security spokesman John Kirby reiterated that the United States has no “red lines” on the number of civilian casualties it will accept.
Biden’s comments sparked outrage around the world, with millions of people watching or sharing them on social media. In Chicago he was greeted by thousands of people demonstrating against US support for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. The crowd chanted “Genocide Joe” and “Biden, Biden, you can’t hide, we’re accusing you of genocide.”
While Biden was speaking in Illinois, he was interrupted by a protester who shouted, “They killed 10,000 Palestinians.” Half of them are children.
Before leaving for Chicago, Biden was asked whether Israel’s “retaliatory airstrikes” were working, to which he replied, “Yes,” adding, “They are hitting the targets they’re looking for.”
Just hours after these statements, Israeli forces made clear what they were “seeking” by bombing three hospitals. Israel bombed the Al-Shifa hospital complex, where tens of thousands of people are seeking refuge, with an experimental Blade missile. The horrific consequences were shown in a widely circulated video. The missile, believed to be an American Hellfire R9X, carried no explosives but instead scattered blades across the area, severing and amputating limbs and leaving pools of blood.
The al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital in Gaza was also attacked. Dr. Mostafa al-Kahlout told Al Jazeera of a “massive fire” at the hospital housing 1,000 refugees. According to the hospital director, eleven rockets hit the area around the Indonesian hospital, damaging its buildings.
“Israel is now taking these dangerous measures against hospitals to completely decommission them and then evict the people housed there, as well as patients and medical staff,” Palestinian Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in Gaza.
In this regard, National Security spokesman John Kirby, who is also a retired admiral, announced what he called “humanitarian pauses” in the incessant Israeli bombing of Gaza. Kirby said: “Israel will begin introducing four-hour breaks each day in areas of the northern Gaza Strip, with the announcement to be made three hours earlier” and “create humanitarian corridors to allow people to escape from hostilities in northern Gaza.” .
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made it clear to other world leaders that his plan is to relocate the population of Gaza to Egypt’s Sinai Desert. His plans, reported by the Financial Times, are consistent with a document published by the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence proposing the expulsion of the population from Gaza.
Under these conditions, what the United States and all media call “humanitarian breaks” and “humanitarian corridors” are nothing more than the means by which the Netanyahu government, with the support of the United States, carries out the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza.
In line with that plan, Israel said 80,000 people left the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, the highest number yet. According to the United Nations, more than 557,000 people are being housed in UN facilities in southern Gaza and hospitals cannot accept new arrivals. There is one toilet for every 160 people.
At least 10,812 Palestinians in Gaza have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, according to the Health Ministry. More than 4,000 of the dead are children. In a statement Thursday, Human Rights Watch wrote:
Israeli ground forces surround and advance into Gaza City, less than 2 km from Gaza’s largest medical facility, Al-Shifa Hospital, where staff are overwhelmed by the number of patients amid an hour-long blockade. Months of intense bombardment.
The statement continues
Given the ongoing attacks and fighting in the immediate area, we are deeply concerned for the well-being of thousands of civilians, many of them children, seeking medical care and protection, including people requiring life support, people who have lost limbs in air strikes, etc. burn victims . …Hospitals enjoy special protection under martial law, which they only lose if they are used to commit “hostile acts” and after appropriate warning. Evacuating patients and staff from hospitals should only be a last resort.
Meanwhile, the United States continues to escalate the scale of the war ravaging the Middle East. For the second time in nearly two weeks, the United States carried out airstrikes Thursday against what it said were Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces in Syria. The attacks were carried out by two Air Force F-15E jets against a weapons depot in the Syrian province of Deir al Zour. “The United States stands fully prepared to take additional actions necessary to protect our people and our facilities,” said Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
The United States has sent two aircraft carrier battle groups and an Ohio-class nuclear submarine to the Middle East, marking the “largest mass of US ships in the region in decades,” according to the USNI (United States Naval Institute).
(Article originally published in English on November 9, 2023)
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